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Dear
reader,
It's
vitally important that you understand just how serious the missing
persons issue is in Australia. Did you know over 30,000 women, men
and children go missing in Australia every year? That's 1 person
every 18 minutes. Often these are ordinary people just like you
and me.
The
devastation and heartbreak for families and friends is enormous.
As you can imagine, the grief is even more unbearable when the missing
person is a child or infant.
Words
cannot describe what it is like to have a loved one disappear. There
is no goodbye, no last hug, no phone calls and no letters. NOTHING.
For many people the pain of not knowing continues day after day
especially in homicide cases – without a body there can be
no resolution to the grieving process.
It’s
been estimated that for every person reported missing, the impact
is felt by 12 others, not only family members and friends, but also
work colleagues and other community members. Families and friends
of missing persons face a range of physical, emotional, psychological
and financial impacts. |
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The Lucky Country? Australia
has been called the lucky country, but this doesn't seem to be the
case when it comes to
missing persons. Sometimes it seems there is more help available
for people with missing dogs and
cats than for missing family members. Solving our missing person
crisis is a huge task and we must
unite to work through the issues.
The frustration I have personally encountered in trying to obtain
justice for my mother and sister -
Louise and Charmian Faulkner - has been enormous. Although the disappearance
and death of Louise
and Charmian is one of Australia's biggest unsolved crimes, there
is no information on
either the
Victoria Police website or the Federal Police website. Twenty eight
years after Louise and Charmian's
disappearance I am still being denied government counselling. I
have been appalled at the lack of
care and compassion shown by the authorities and I have questioned
the thoroughness of the police
investigation. Unbelievably I have heard similar stories from other
family members of missing persons.
This is simply not good enough. The situation must change.
Understand this - Australia has no national police database for
Missing Persons. This means if
someone goes missing in one state but travels over the border into
another state it can be very
difficult to track and locate them. Unbelievably, Victoria and Tasmania
don't have Police Missing
Persons websites at all even though over 7,000 persons were reported
missing in these states in
the previous 12 months. The Australian Federal Police website has
profiles of 172 missing persons.
However, this represents only one tenth of the estimated 1,700 persons
who have been missing for
more than 12 months.
For every missing person case you hear about on the news there are
dozens of others that receive
little or no publicity. Every missing person in precious. Every
missing person deserves to be found.
And every unsolved murder is a blight on our community.
How
your donation will help
With
your financial assitance the Louise and Charmian Foundation can
continue to;
 Raise
public awareness of missing persons in Australia
Support
family and friends of missing persons
Address and implement prevention strategies for persons at risk
Advocate
greater justice to victims where foul play has been involved
We
also aim to raise $20 000 to train a search and rescue dog in the
near future.
Why
become a member?
Every
year in Australia about 360,000 people feel the effect of a family
member, friend or work
colleague going missing. It's very likely then, that you or someone
you know will need our help
someday. Membership is available to all persons, and is especially
valuable to family and friends of
missing persons or persons at risk. Through your membership you
will have access to support, advice
and the comfort of being able to connect with other people who have
experienced a similar missing
person situation or loss.
Your membership will also improve our position to lobby for legislation
to deal more effectively with
our missing persons crisis. We must continue to pressure the Australian
government to address our
national problem of missing persons, provide the framework for improving
law enforcement's response,
improve victim's rights, increase penalties for homicide where a
body has been concealed, and
overcome the backlog of unidentified human remains in storage.
The Louise and Charmian Foundation is a non-profit registered charity
which receives no
government funding whatsoever. We rely 100% on the generosity of
people like yourself to
operate. Your
donation - no matter how small - can help us overcome the missing
persons crisis in
Australia.
Thank
you
Foundation Director
PS.
Making a donation or becoming a member is easy;
Print out the PDF document and post back your completed form, or
fill in the email form below
 Louise
and Charmian Foundation Membership
A
big thank you to the following individuals, businesses and organizations;
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| Missing
Persons . . . someone knows the answers |
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