Royal Commission a Time to Tell the Truth

By Celine Foenander
ABC Gippsland
April 3, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/04/03/3728926.htm

Opening day of Royal Commission

[with audio]

A group which represents children who grew up in orphanages, children's homes and foster care is calling on its members to be brave enough to tell their story to a Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse got underway in Melbourne this morning.

The Care Leavers Australia Network or CLAN says it will support its members through the process, many of whom are in Gippsland.

"The public needs to know what happened to us, we're the invisible children and when we did try to speak out, we weren't believed," CLAN executive officer and co-founder Leonie Sheedy told ABC Gippsland.

"It's very difficult for us to tell our stories. I hope that people will come forward and tell their stories to the Royal Commission."

A recent survey of 382 CLAN members indicated that 63 per cent had been sexually abused by adults and 38 per cent by other children also in care.

The survey found most of the victims of sexual abuse had not made a report to police because they didn't know how to complain or feared they would not be believed.

"They shouldn't be carrying the shame and stigma of what happened to them as children," Ms Sheedy, a former state ward says.

"It's the churches and charities and state governments that employed these pedophiles and they need to carry the shame and we need to unburden ourselves and tell our stories to our families so that they have a better understanding of us and how we were raised."

Ms Sheedy says CLAN workers planned to visit regional areas like Sale, where there was once a boys home, to conduct workshops on how to tell a very personal and painful story.

"We are very limited, we've got four staff in a national office in Sydney and it's extremely difficult to provide all of the support," she says.

"I'm sure the government are going to implement support during the process, but more importantly there needs to be follow-up after they've (the victims) given their statements to the Royal Commission."