LETTERS OF SUPPORT

Federation Beginnings - Comments to the Founder from the international community

 

From The United States Aboriginal Community:

"Ouachitalk" ouachitalk@hotmail.com

Posted your letter on our "Classifieds" page, http://www.ouachitalk.com/classifieds.htm .
Please let us now if you have anything else!

SkyWarrior

Webmaster: http://www.ouachitalk.com
ouachitalk@hotmail.com

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Dear Roch Longueepee,

I am sure you are doing many orphans a service which is much needed. I am very sympathetic to the cause of orphans, also those who have been abused.

I understand that you are not running an orphanage. Therefore, I will post your organization in another section where organizations that assist orphans are listed.

I hope this is helpful.

With warm greetings,

Joseph Vos
Director & Webmaster
Orphanage.org
http://www.orphanage.org

Orphanage.org has been registered by K.E.K. Gems International Co. Ltd. from Bangkok, Thailand for the only reason to make it the homepage of all orphanages in the world. It has been donated to all orphanages to insert their links into that page, or if they do not have a homepage, to get a free homepage here from us without charge to them.

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Hi Roch

Great to hear of your org - like Jim I believe we are only energised by
networking with each other - Moving forward the agenda we all share for change
and the struggle to obtain true acknowledgement of our histories.

www.malesurvivor.org

Looking forward to seeing your initiative develop

Regards
Bob Balfour

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Hi Roch,

Thanks for getting in touch. Fascinating to hear about your work in Canada and what has been happening over there. We are in the middle of organising a conference for careleavers over here. It takes place on Saturday. Once that is over, I will be able to put up a link to your site on our own. The international memorial day sounds great. When are you planning it for?

In the meantime, I'd encourage you to check out our Care Leavers Association website (www.careleavers.com) for more about us. Also, I'm copying this mail to Bob Balfour. Bob is one of our members who has a particular interest in institutional child abuse issues. Check out his interest on our website. Finally, I'm copying the email to Leonie Hewitt, from our sister organisation in Australia, CLAN (Care Leavers of Australia Network). They have just got a nation-wide parliamentary investigation authorised, into the institutional child abuse t hat took place in Australia. We have a link to CLAN on our website.

Most of all, keep in touch. I've long thought that it is both possible and the right time to develop an international network of care leavers. One of the good sides of globalisation through the web!

All the best,
Jim Goddard (secretary)

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Hello Roch

Yes this is a good idea uniting all our groups I have been wanting to do this for a long time .
My organization is called Breaking The Silence (Helping Survivors Of Residentisl School Abuse) I am working wit the Natives of the North if you have any more questions please get back to me .

Shirley
http://www.visions.ab.ca/health/Health_Programs/Abuse/abuse.html

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Dear Roch

You don't know me. And chances are, you're better off for it. But just the same, I am a member of LINK UP and I happened to read your email to John S. this morning re: the impending Survivors First meeting with "The Church"...and because my head is spinning, I am going to close my eyes and jump...and lay something very personal in your lap. Please know that I do not do this because I blame you in any way, shape or form. I do this because I want to encourage you, I want to BE a living attestment to your mission to build your memorial to victims and survivors.

I want you to remember what you read and to fight long and hard to succeed in your mission. Attached you will find a copy of two letters. The first is the reply I received from my "devout" catholic sister in law, (Blank) after she read your letter I circulated about your desire for the Memorial to survivors. Obviously, you don't know me OR her...but perhaps you can or will appreciate what one female survivor (me) has to say about clergy sexual abuse and its IMPACT on people...and about what blind devotion without personal accountability or mental stretching can do to the sheeple that we survivors have to try to live with or explain ourselves to.

And finally, because I am simply reeling from the events of my life of late, I add this as a footnote to the attached letters...they were the final straw. The day I shared those letters with my husband was the day (last Monday) that we decided the only way to live through this mess was to divorce. When it rains, it acid rains, it seems. For the record, and for clarity, (Blank) is my clergy abuser, (Blank) is my sons' clergy abuser, (BlanK) is (Blank’'s) bishop...(BlanK) is my (soon to be ex)...(BlanK) and (BlanK) are my sons. I KNOW, believe me, that this is a bizarre gesture...to forward this to you. Please...indulge me. I'm grasping at any hands in the darkness and I don't even KNOW why I would think you should read this...but nonetheless, I do... I'm NOT crazy. I am just tired and when I saw your post this morning on LINK UP, obviously, I associated you with the Memorial Letter and that sucked me right in to this state of mind...whereby I cry out for sense in this madness...

With Regards and Apologies
Melissa, Survivor, and mother of 2 survivors

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Dear Roch,

Yes, I am eager to help in this project. I'll begin looking for submissions to the website, and get the word out to my connections to provide information. Your description of the stie, with links to countries, etc. sounds wonderful and should really open some eyes as to the widespread scope of this problem. I did read the article from Ireland; shocking. I have a contact in Ireland who might be able to locate the group. Do you still need that info?

I'll also link your site from our Linkup website.

From here we can keep working together.

Best regards,
Sue Archibald

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Hi,

My name is Nicole and I got your e-mail address from Turtle Island Network. I read the message you posted and thought maybe you can assist me. I am a student conducting a community based research project on women in reidential schools. I am a counsellor and an advocate for violence against women and think it is important to research this topic. I am not a survivor of residential schools and would like to speak with a woman who is. I think it is important that women from our community to share thier stories and will hopefull lead to some sort of healing. Let me know if I can ask you a few questions via- e-mail. Your story will be totally confidential. Also, let me know if you have a few tips for me!

Thank you, Take care.
Nicole

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Hi !

Thank you for your e-mail. Please let me know more about ways people can participate.

Sincerely,
Neil Brick (editor of SMART)

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Dear Roch,

I am impressed with your idea for a memorial day for victims. I'd like to know more about it.

You are right in that the record of abuse in Canada is terrible. I was there just one week ago at a surivors meeting in Cornwall. Some of the stories I heard were frightening.

Perhaps I can help to advertise your event in our organization: The Linkup. We have about 3,000 members, mainly in the US but a few in Canada too.

Thanks for the hard work you're doing for survivors of abuse,

Sincerely,

Sue Archibald
President, The Linkup
www.thelinkup.com

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Hello!

Excellent web page! Just returned from Cornwall. Love Canada. I am so sorry that so much evil was done there... I am so proud of the good that is now following.

All best wishes!
Kay

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Hi Roch

I just arrived home from Italy - it was wonderful - although they are years behind us in the clergy abuse issues - At this congress I was speaking at there was a head of state from the European and British parliament and as well as others from different countries and of course from Italy - No one had ever heard that Canada had a problem with clergy sexual abuse - let alone the residential schools in Canada and other major groups, - they had heard about things in Australia and U.S.A. - and yet the situation in Canada is 10 times worse - so I disclosed what had gone on in Canada - I spoke for over 1.5 hours and did a slide presentation on some of the photographs I have from the residential schools and from my exhibition Wounded Boys - Courageous Men. I have made some interesting contacts in Europe and I think they will be interested.

Jane Mundy

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Roch,

I wish you well on your activist journey!

Joey

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Dear Roch,

Thank you for your email and for sharing your very thoughtful letter to survivors of institutional child abuse. I certainly applaud your efforts to bring greater awareness to this issue and to the continued suffering of those involved. I believe your heartfelt approach will bring positive results. I would be very happy to talk with you about how we at The National Day of Healing and Reconciliation initiative can collaborate in this important healing work. I am in the middle of some personal changes and moving so I would suggest talking sometime around the middle of November. How does this sound to you? I have cc'd your email to both Maggie Hodgson, Residential School Advisor, and to Carol Jenkins, Communications Officer at Nechi/Visions. Please feel free to also make contact with them about expanding your contact base for your project. I would suggest also that you check out our website and see if our initiative fits with your own perspective. See us at http://ndhrcanada.visions.ab.ca I will look forward to talking to you in November. If you feel so inclined please print out and add your own name to our petition, circulate, and/or send us a letter of support for the initiative. Thanks very much. Take care.

In hope of healing,

Edward Edward Colley,
NDHRCANADA ndhrcanada@pacificcoast.net

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Hi There

I received your email in a very round-about way. Very impressive! You emailed people on a list and one of them from Austrailia, in turn emailed it to me (as a part of her list). I am an American, (NW Pennsylvania) and survived 4 1/2 years of boarding school. Is your conference open to Americans (as the title "International" would suggest)? Can you get me the details? I am also a universiry student and will post pertinent information throughout the campus.

Thanks
DeAnne

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Roch.....Very, very impressive. You have great plans. Contact with SNAP and LINKUP will surely help. Have you been in contact with the Irish and Australian people as well......Colm O'Gorman and Barry Coldrey?

I am worn out now...long day, hence the short response but I promise a longer one once I get my zip back.

God bless
Tom

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Dear Mr. Longueepee,

Thank you so much for making contact with my colleagues in the U.S. and i. My name is David Gagnon, and i am the Canadian Coordinator for SNAP-Canada, and a member of the Canadian Church Abuse Survivors' Alliance(CCASA). We are making every effort to make further inroads in our connections with the first nations, metis and inuit communities, and i am pleased to have received your e-mail. Your link to your community website, however, does not open on my computer, so i wonder if you would not mind being so kind as to foward me the website address again. I would be very interested in knowing more about your work, where you are located and in what areas you are working. We are currently dialoguing with the Assembly of First Nations, and we hope to significantly increase our membership from the AFN, Metis and Inuit communities over the coming months. I will hope to hear more from you in the near future. Thank you again for making contact, and I will look forward to the possibility of connecting sometime soon.

David Gagnon
SNAP-Canada

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Roch,

I wanted to tell you that I listened to a survivor of the Dupless Orphanage at the linkup conference. He was a beautiful man who spoke French.. He had an interpreter. He broke down several times.. I wept thru the whole thing hearing the horrors he had to experience...I felt so bad for him and all of them my heart is rebroken... I got to shake his hand and tell him he was wonderful and than him...I thought of you and want you to know how sorry I am for all of us it is overwhelming and there needs to be exposure and accountability... they can't just sodomie and rape their way thru history and not accept accountability.

I needed to hear what I heard to become more compassionate.. toward other victims of such horrible abuse. Now I understand why you are so devoted to your work and the plan you have. Believe me, I could not stop crying and I hadn't cried like that my whole life.

It made everything real. Again, I am sorry and I am your ally.

Tina

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Roch,

First I would like to congratulate you for taking on such a wonderful challenge. I would think that once your project is up and running you will help many people gain closure which will enable them to move forward with their lives.

I am definitely interested in acquiring more information.

So far what has been done on the web site looks great! Very professional. I look forward to seeing it when it once it is completed. I am more than willing to do anything I can to help out and will contact Kenneth sometime in the next week or so to offer my assistance with the Canadian child care institutions list.

Sincerely,
Allison
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Allison Metzger,
Director & Webmaster, TRIAD Canada
Looking for adoption related links??
Come check out our website!!
http://www.triadcanada.ca
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Roch,

We have just had a conversation about your organization, the Inter-Nations Justice Federation. The work you are doing sounds fascinating and I would appreciated more info which you said you could provide by way of a hyper link to your proposed web site.

Good luck to you.

Marilyn Watters,

Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada
WattersM@irsr-rqpi.gc.ca

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Dear Roch

Your email arrived with me out of the blue and I welcome it. It is obvious to me that you have read my website well and that you are familiar with my past and perhaps my childhood. My life in institutional care is written in my best selling book, The God Squad which is no going to be re-issued yet again.

I welcome what you are doing but I am interested in finding out more from you as to where you see me role in remembering victims of abuse.

It was wonderful to have spoken to you today, thank you for taking the time to call and for enduring my ear wrenching conversation! Sometimes, I feel I just have to say so many things that my mouth travels faster than my brain. I enjoyed our conversation.

I look forward to us keeping in touch and I also look forward to exchanging information that will help in whatever small way to enhance or improve those people who were so abused and in some cases destroyed, as children.

Please do remain in contact with me.

My very warmest wishes,

Paddy
_______________________________________
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter".
Martin Luther King Jnr
_______________________________________
Website: www.paddydoyle.com
Email: paddy@paddydoyle.com
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Hello Roch,

so sorry to hear of your nightmare for a childhood and know what it feels like. Happy though to hear that you are working hard on the behalf of other's too. I lived at the convent of no mercy, Bristol, England and we too had a burial site for girls, unmarked of coarse and it is ??????? What they got away with. Kindest Regards and great to have you here with us.

Luv Margo
http://groups.msn.com/childrenshomesukcommonwealth

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Hi There

Thanks for your e-mail could you please tell me a bit about your time at the homes as in the cottage and the years you lived there.

Many thanks.

Yvonne

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Roch,

I wanted to acknowledge the work your foundation does. You hit it on the head, indifference is the ultimate disssss.. We all can be difference makers by recognizing and responding when any one reaches out!

I survived an orphanage in a third world country, Louisiana....

I am also being proactive and would humbly ask that if the name Madonna Manor / Hope Haven is brought to your attention, that you would share my e-mail address in the hope I might once again re-unite with my lost mates.

Keep the faith enjoy the fresh air, smile at everyone you meet that should make it clear, letting down your hair letting out a little air, resentment and despair, slowly disappear!

Thank you,

Ted
"Believing is an action verb"

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Hello, Roch,

Just a quick note to say hello, and e-mail me the info again. I may have deleted it the other day as I was cleaning up my mail box. Keep me informed. was at the web site, very interesting.

Regards,

Ian marc

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HI ROCH,

I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT YOU , YOUR E-MAILS ARE RETURNED TO ME AS UNABLE TO DELIVER.... HOPEFULLY YOU WILL RECEIVE THIS ONE.. YOUR ARTICLE TOUCHED ME. WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE OF THE "INTERNATIONS JUSTICE FEDERATION"

WARMLY, CAROL.

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hey roch!

was good talking to u
too just letting u know that ur e-mail got here fine :) yes...looking forward to u guys coming ova to aussie
talk again soon.......

n ty again for ur inspiration :)

"kimmie"