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Date: 2007-07-30 10:45:20
ISS Australia Newsletter - May 2007  [ back ]

May Newsletter

In this issue you will find:


ISS Open Day - UN International Day of Families

Tuesday 15 May was the United Nations International Day of Families. This day began in 1994 as a way to celebrate and promote awareness of issues relating to families across the world. The ISS National Office in Melbourne acknowledged this important day by holding an Information and Celebration Afternoon. A number of agencies attended such as the Australian Red Cross, Vanish and more. The aim of the afternoon was to promote awareness and action around the issues experienced by families separated by international borders. ISS staff gave presentations about the different ISS programs so that agencies present could better understand their relevance to their work. The afternoon was also an opportunity to launch the new ISS Victorian Network which is made up of a number of Victorian agencies working with families and interested in sharing knowledge and referrals.

The NSW office held an Open Day attended by 17 guests and 4 staff which was really pushing our small office's capacity to the limit! Attendees included people from nine different key community and government organisations. With seemingly effortless organisation, great catering and fresh coffee, there was a cheerful and festive atmosphere. However, this in no way detracted from the more serious task of sharing with participants important information about the role of ISS within the NSW community. Social Workers Liz Forsyth and Anjali Russell gave presentations on the ISS services and this generated some very important questions from community partners. One outcome of the event was that most attendees signed up to receive the ISS E-newsletter and all expressed an interest in learning more about ISS. All in all it was an exciting and well received day.

Both events were a great success and a valuable learning experience for all ISS staff and for the agencies that attended. Organisers of the Melbourne event would like to thank Weicheng Chen for helping to decorate the office and Nyatut Ngyoth for talking about her personal experience of being part of a family separated by international borders.

Both events included the official launch of two new ISS publications, a research report titled 'Learning from the Links between Domestic Violence and International Parental Child Abduction' and a practical resource kit, the 'Family Violence and Child Abduction Planning and Prevention Resource Kit'. For details of the publications, please see last month's edition or contact the National Office on 03 9614 8755.

IPCA Parents' Forum Goes Live

The new on-line forum for parents affected by international parental child abduction is now live. To join the forum, parents should go to www.iss.org.au and click on 'ISS Forum'. For parents with no access to the internet, ISS also provides a networking service to link them with other parents. For full details, see last month's edition.

Central Authorities' Meeting

The annual Central Authorities' meeting was held in Melbourne this month and Carmel Alakus from ISS was invited to attend a session on inter-country adoption to give a presentation on our work. It proved a worthwhile opportunity to meet senior representatives from government adoption services in each state and territory as well as the Director of the ISS New Zealand Affiliated Bureau. Most of the people present were already familiar with the services provided by International Social Service. While valuing the work done by the ISS Australia, those present commented most favourably on the information available from the ISS International Reference Centre. They found articles relating to adoption and updates on various countries around the world particularly useful.

ISS Australia Attends International ISS Meetings

Executive Director, Maria Brett, attended two key international ISS meetings in May - the Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting in Manila and the Executive Committee Meeting in Geneva. In Manila, representatives of ISS branches and affiliated bureaux in the region particpated in a symposium on Migration and Human Trafficking, which highlighted how different the ISS agenda is in the Asia-Pacific region compared with the rest of ISS. The Asia-Pacific Meeting included much celebration with plenty of singing and dancing. Asian colleagues particularly enjoyed Maria Brett's rendition of Walzting Matilda!

In Geneva, Maria Brett contributed to important decisions affecting ISS internationally, including the current review of our governing statutes, restructuring of the General-Secretariat, development of the ISS network and recruitment of key personnel for the General-Secretariat (a new General-Secretary, a Casework Coordinator and an International President).

ISS Australia made the most of these valuable opportunities to contribute to the development of ISS internationally. We are especially grateful for the hard work and hospitality of our Philippino and Swiss colleagues in hosting the meetings.

Who's Who at ISS

After almost 4 years as our part-time bookkeeper, Leena Neumann has retired. Leena was a dedicated and committed member of staff who provided an essential bookkeeping service to both our National and NSW offices. ISS would like to thank Leena for all her hard work over the years, and we wish her all the best for the future.

Student Reflection on Field Education Placement at ISS

by Ruben Klaphake - 3rd year Social Work Student
I'm sure it was only yesterday that I was being welcomed into the team at the NSW Office of ISS. I remember reading a welcome to me in the E-newsletter the day before I started. I had already subscribed so that I could read up on what ISS was doing and impress my supervisors on my first day. That was the first piece of reading material in an exciting stream of information that has been passed my way since starting. Now, in the same e-newsletter, I'm handing back a small piece for everyone else to read.

I can see how I have learnt and changed since starting here on my first of two field education placements for my Bachelor of Social Work degree at the University of New South Wales. When I consider how it might be for me when I begin my second placement in just over a year, I know that it will be very different from when I started with ISS. Because of this I feel even more grateful for being able to begin the learning process by doing a placement in such a great working environment. It has been very generous of ISS to give me so much energy and time in helping me on my way to becoming a social work professional, only to see me eventually go to another agency. When I go to my next placement and then on to work, I will be taking all I have learnt with me, and I won't forget the generosity shown to me and the commitment NSW staff have shown to the social work profession . However, I will also be passing on what ISS has given me to the social work profession and maybe even to other students one day!

There have been so many other details that I couldn't write them all. I've learnt about so many things on so many levels - things that I didn't guess I'd be learning, like the challenges involved in building an effective team, how organisations work, what casework really is, bigger concepts and their application to small actions, my influence in my work, who does what, and that there's a whole world of activity that I was never really aware of. The list goes on and on. Anyway, it's been a fantastic experience and I highly recommend student placements at ISS.

Case Study – Post-adoption Family Reunion

ISS NSW was approached by an adult adoptee wishing to locate her birth mother believed to be in Italy. Adoption information was obtained by the ISS Italian Branch which indicated the birth mother was in fact Swiss and was from a town on the Italian/Swiss border. A referral was made to ISS Switzerland. The birth mother was traced and was able to provide minimal information about the adoptee's birth father, who was subsequently located in Portugal via our ISS unit there. The adoptee is now happily communicating with both her birth parents, and is learning much of her cultural and medical background.

All identifying details including countries have been changed to protect the privacy of ISS clients.

Contributions and Feedback Welcome

The ISS newsletter is now produced every two months. If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, either by writing an article or a letter to the editor, please contact Maria Brett at maria@iss.org.au.

We always appreciate your feedback. To respond to articles or give us feedback, please e-mail the editor.