Andrew Murray addresses AGM
On Thursday, 25 November 2010 the 2010 Barnardos AGM was held at the Aspire Hotel in Ultimo, Sydney. Guest speaker at the event was former Senator for Western Australia, Andrew Murray, who at the age of four was sent from the UK as a Fairbridge child to Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia).
Senator Murray was a major force behind establishing the Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Child Migration and it was in this capacity that he addressed the Barnardos AGM.
Many child migrants were sent to Australia from the UK by Barnardos. At the time Barnardos believed that migration would give children the opportunities they could not obtain in the UK. However many child migrants have told us of the effects on them of losing their country of origin and any knowledge about their past. As an organisation we have acknowledged and apologised for the hurt this has caused. We are extremely lucky to have ongoing relationships with many of our child migrants, indeed one of them is on our board of directors.
For a full transcript of Andrew Murray’s address to the AGM click here.