Humanity 360 Degrees

Inspirational story from the Barnardos Australia Team

Hi, my name is Cherie McCormack and I have been with Barnardos for two and a half years. I am the Program Manager for the Adoptions program in the Hunter and Central Coast office. Prior to coming to Barnardos, I worked as a Caseworker then Case Manager at the Department of Communities and Justice. As a child, I always wanted to be a veterinarian when I grew up.
What I find most rewarding about my role is being able to achieve positive permanency outcomes by finding loving families for children that need safe homes. The children in our program build such a strong attachment and trusting relationship with their potential adoptive parents and seeing them flourish in their care is always rewarding.
Open adoption is important as it maintains a connection between children and their birth family. The essence of open adoption is that the child knows they’ve been adopted and maintains a connection with their birth family through regular visits. Ideally, the birth and adoptive families build a stronger connection and embrace each other as extended family. This openness allows the child to grow and develop with the confidence of knowing where they came from.
Barnardos helps build the relationships between birth families and adoptive parents or temporary carers. From the very beginning upon entering the adoption program, the birth parents and the carers meet each other and work towards forming a connection. The carers and potential adoptive parents will start to attend all birth family visits and eventually move on to scheduling and supervising these visits independently of Case Managers. The birth parents will have an email address and a telephone number to contact the carers on and the carers will send updates of the children to the birth parents. At review meetings, the carers will be encouraged to give the parents updates about the child themselves and the parents are encouraged to ask the carers any questions that they have.
With my time at Barnardos, I would like to continue to work focused on the best interests of children and achieve whatever permanency goal is in their best interests.

Hi, my name is Cherie McCormack and I have been with Barnardos for two and a half years. I am the Program Manager for the Adoptions program in the Hunter and Central Coast office. Prior to coming to Barnardos, I worked as a Caseworker then Case Manager at the Department of Communities and Justice. As a child, I always wanted to be a veterinarian when I grew up.

What I find most rewarding about my role is being able to achieve positive permanency outcomes by finding loving families for children that need safe homes. The children in our program build such a strong attachment and trusting relationship with their potential adoptive parents and seeing them flourish in their care is always rewarding.

Open adoption is important as it maintains a connection between children and their birth family. The essence of open adoption is that the child knows they’ve been adopted and maintains a connection with their birth family through regular visits. Ideally, the birth and adoptive families build a stronger connection and embrace each other as extended family. This openness allows the child to grow and develop with the confidence of knowing where they came from.

Barnardos helps build the relationships between birth families and adoptive parents or temporary carers. From the very beginning upon entering the adoption program, the birth parents and the carers meet each other and work towards forming a connection. The carers and potential adoptive parents will start to attend all birth family visits and eventually move on to scheduling and supervising these visits independently of Case Managers. The birth parents will have an email address and a telephone number to contact the carers on and the carers will send updates of the children to the birth parents. At review meetings, the carers will be encouraged to give the parents updates about the child themselves and the parents are encouraged to ask the carers any questions that they have.

With my time at Barnardos, I would like to continue to work focused on the best interests of children and achieve whatever permanency goal is in their best interests.

Through the hussle and bustle of the streets of Bangalore, we were excited when we finally reached the YFS office as we were greeted by such warm and friendly faces. We were first welcomed by the inspiring Mr Venkatesh Murthy and his group of passionate and dedicated team.

We spent an invaluable time speaking with the YFS family and listening to their stories and boundless endeavours to reach out and provide education and well being for underprivileged children and adolescents. It was also a pleasure to finally meet Dr. Nirupama whom is the Head of Doctors for Seva - an initiative to engage various stakeholders including medical, non-medical volunteers and the community at large through various projects and partnerships in order to achieve their end objective of access to quality health and healthcare for all at no cost or low cost.

Thank you once again Mr Venkatesh Murthy and Vidya for graciously welcoming us as always.

Yesterday was a truly fulfilling day for us as we had the opportunity to visit a local orphanage with the help of Paranjyothi Sampige . We visited Jana Seva Samrudhi Nilaya home that cares for 30 boys, age from 5 to 18 years old.

The visit started with each child introducing themselves telling us their name, age and we asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. One would say scientist, then the next three would follow suit and say the same. It was heartwarming to hear each one of them speak. Majority wanted to become soldiers/policemen to serve their country!

We got a big cake and some local sweets and got the youngest in the group to cut the cake to celebrate Children’s Day (Nov 14) a month in advance.

The kids were so excited to show us around,. We also played some board games with them after.

Before leaving we handed out school backpacks for the kids, again thanks to Paranjyothi for getting everything organised for us beforehand.

The children were thanking us for visiting them but we couldn’t have been more grateful for the kids welcoming us the way they did and for the profound experience.

Shannon Watts is a mother of five and the former communications executive before she founded Moms Demand Action. Shannon launched a Facebook group the day after the Sandy Hook massacre to spread the idea that all Americans can and should do more to minimise gun violence. A grassroots movement of Americans fighting for laws that protect the public from gun violence sprang out of the online discussion. Every state now has a branch of Moms Demand Action, which is a component of Everytown for Gun Safety, which has nearly 10 million supporters and is the nation's largest group dedicated to preventing gun violence.

Tegan is a survivor of domestic abuse. It was nothing short of remarkable how brave and determined she was to live. Since Tegan was originally referred to Barnardos Australia Linker domestic violence service five years ago her life has undergone significant upheaval. She is currently taking care of her children while finishing her bachelor's degree in social sciences.

Click on the link to read her inspiring story: https://bit.ly/3CKVbVl

“To really change the world, we have to help people change the way they see things. Global betterment is a mental process, not one that requires huge sums of money or a high level of authority. Change has to be psychological. So if you want to see real change, stay persistent in educating humanity on how similar we all are than different. Don't only strive to be the change you want to see in the world, but also help all those around you see the world through commonalities of the heart so that they would want to change with you. This is how humanity will evolve to become better. This is how you can change the world. The language of the heart is mankind's main common language.”

― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

During their recent trip to India, our Chairman Mr Madhu Ramana Chintalapally and Co-Founder Dr Guru Yajaman not only had the opportunity to meet our 10 scholarship students from Youth For Seva (YFS) and Mr. Venkatesh Murthy (founder of YFS) but had the privilege to witness and honour our very first Medical Graduate student Dr. Manaswi. We are so proud of Dr. Manaswi and her achievements. She ranked 6th in the BMAS exams from Rajiv Gandhi University and we couldn’t be more proud of her. We can only imagine how proud her parents and family would be feeling with her accomplishments.

We would like to recognise Water for Women, an organisation that works to promote gender equality, better health, and overall wellness in Asian and Pacific communities through socially responsible and long-lasting water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programmes.
The Australian Government's flagship WASH programme, Water for Women, is being implemented as part of Australia's aid programme, with a funding commitment of 118.9 million dollars over a five-year period from 2018 to 2022. The organisation is funding 13 research projects in collaboration with research organisations with the goal of filling knowledge gaps and improving the ex*****on of WASH initiatives.

The WASH programme is a reminder for us all to not only see, but to understand, and – more importantly – value water.

Water for Women Project Fiji | First Flush Device Learn about the First Flush device that has been introduced into communities in Fiji. This project receives support from DFAT’s (Department of Foreign Affair...

Over the weekend we had the opportunity to meet the students we have been sponsoring towards their higher education along with members of Youth For Seva. Our chairman Madhu had the privilege to host them for an intimate/informal conversation talking all things education and how we can continue to be of service to improve and extend our humanitarian efforts towards their education.
Meeting our young group of inspirational students, it was indeed a learning curve for both parties alike.
It was wonderful to hear directly from our 9 sponsorship students of their goals and aspirations. Our tenth sponsor student rightly so could not join us as she was attending her graduation achieving her BMAS degree. We are also proud to note that she ranked 6th in the entire state. We wish her all the success as a doctor. Also we were not surprised when 3 of the students advised us that they would like to continue and do their post graduation. Our commitment continues to extend our scholarship program to their post graduation as well.
Together getting things done for good!

We’re very proud of our super volunteers, Priya Krishnan and Shruthi Yajaman, for taking time out of their busy week to support the Barnardos Australia Peter Pan Op Shop Winter Sale, helping to raise over $40,000 over three days for this Charity.

The Peter Pan Op Shop first ran during World War 2 to cope with clothes rationing. Since then, it has become a biannual event and a highly respected charity fundraiser supported by well-known Australian designers.

Priya and Shruthi reported a jaw-dropping variety of high-quality, new or barely used designer clothes available for as little as $10 a piece. This is definitely one to put on your calendar for next time! Keep an eye on the Barnardos' website for upcoming dates www.barnardos.org.au/events

Thanks, Barnardos Australia for the opportunity to sponsor an outing for the children and families under your care at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium. It was a great day and from what we can tell they enjoyed it as much as we did! We look forward to more collaboration through our sponsorship in the year ahead.