Letter to the caranua board

[micheal]

Letter to the board members of Caranua, my name is Michael,

I as a survivor of sexual abuse from members of the church and part of the survivors group the shame of Ireland. I am entitled to access to our fund by virtue of my redress award.

I wish to let it be know that we have no confidence in your management of our fund, we also have no confidence in Mary Higgins the ceo of caranua in her job as day to day manager of the fund, for the following reasons,

As there are survivors on the board who know that no abuser was brought to justice, to court, to jail in fact all got away scot free for their serious crimes against children, so for the board to agree with the heavy handed wording of new guidelines which talks about, audits conducted on survivors by caranua, court proceedings brought against survivors by caranua and other such inflammatory words, this is insulting, degrading and an abuse of our human rights. I am shocked to see data relating to up to 20k of survivors money being spent by you on just one meeting, so we of which we means several hundred have no confidence in you as a board, how can you reconcile the needs of survivors with your actions.

We also have no confidence in Mary Higgins as ceo and she needs to be replaced before she can cause anymore damage, it is within your power to have a vote of no confidence in her. No survivor would agree to the wording of the new guidelines  and i know for a fact that certain staff in caranua do not agree with her notions relating to the insulting, discriminatory and abusive attitude to survivors.

Despite the huge wages staff take, the huge expenses eg costs and others, what has caranua achieved for survivors as a group, answer nothing, so while staff are living very nice lifestyles on our money, we continue to suffer, i have tried to engage caranua on these facts many times,

I was discriminated against by being refused housing help because of living in private rented housing, despite the fact the house is in a shocking state.

my human rights were abused because of the above and the payment process which was forced on us for two and a half years despite the very serious data protection and right to privacy issues involved.

I suffer a serious dental condition for which i was refused all help,

I was refused help when i was homeless despite suffering a serious  mental health issue, while you were all treated to a nice hotel jaunt in london paid from survivors money to the tune of 20,000, how many more of these meetings will we find out about,  not one advisor in 2 and a half years has offered me any help, i have been fighting these caranua abuses since early 2014, caranua affected my last appeal by providing misinformation to appeals officer, i have not got so much as an apology.

It is not a survivor agenda running caranua, it is the ceo’s personal agenda which runs caranua, i could add loads more stories, proved in writing about shocking dealings we as survivors have had at your hands, but then this letter would become a book.

Let's take a brief look at how absurd and how out of touch caranua is with survivors,

I find it hard to believe that everyone in caranua believes these guidelines and the heavy handed wording used are in the best interests of survivors, unless the whole system is completely corrupt, they are not even in caranuas best interests, i also find it hard to believe that a board which contains survivors would approve this and they will be getting a letter from our group outlining this, here are the issues with the new guidelines,
The statements are very heavy handed and a lot of survivors will be intimidated by this, is this your intention?
Yet more survivors will see this as an opportunity to get caranua into open court which is a dream held by many survivors, to argue out our points and let a judge decide.

Surely you must understand that the people who committed these crimes against us have all gotten away with it,,never brought before the courts no jail time and now we have an absurd situation whereby caranua despite the fact that the dpp would never be stupid enough to give us our day in court, using this type of language in the guidelines.
caranua is going way beyond its remit by talking about audits on survivors, yet more absurd behavior, think about it a group as in caranua take a large portion of the fund to do with as they please ie wages and could yet end up taken the people whom the monies belong ie survivors to,court for,doing the same, it is hard for survivors to have confidence that our fund is being managed in the proper manner,

Mary Higgins is trying to intimidate survivors with the wording of new guidelines, i will not be intimidated and will use all avenues, legal, media, human rights commision to bring caranua to task, i will never stop, it is shameful that survivors on the board would allow wording like this in the guidelines,we stand together for justice for survivors if you had any sense you would join us, which is your job to look after our best interests not your own, not spend our fund on your own expenses and lavish wages, i have for years tried to engage caranua on these points and have been completely ignored, you are mismanaging our fund something which you will have to answer for in court.

Best regards Michael from the shame of ireland survivors group, we get no funding or want any, we have no vested interests or only interest is helping survivors and seeing that our human rights are upheld, which were supposed to be your interests.

[pauline jackson]

We are not naughty children to be told off by adults. The Administration of caranua is no better than all the other groups pumping the survivers. It takes much too long to await for help. Several months to talk to an adviser as we know our own needs. Months waiting for an answer to a damande for a wheelchair is not help or solidarity. its humiliating.

[Elizabeth Dormer]

I suffered at the hands of my mum who was in an institution, I got redress as all the combined medical records proved what I was saying. It was all there in black and white from 1969 to 2001 when my mum passed away.

I have informed Caranua that this gave me a right to access Caranua. They replied telling me that it would be illegal for them to fund the dentist work that I want doing.

I don't know if going through the redress board gave me more rights to Caranua? Does anybody know?

[Elizabeth Dormer]

Hi Michael,

Can I please copy this letter and send it to Caranua too?  Could I share it on facebook too?

This is an excellent letter........Thought about sending this to the BBC following my last letter?

Sorry for so many questions x

[micheal]

@ Rob thank you so much will work my way through them,

@ Robert i will add survivors who stand together and am very happy to this, totally agree with your points above, i only want to see survivors and their familes looked after and am delighted to have you on board.

[micheal]

@Pauline  we keep fighting whatever we have to do we will do it, standing together makes us strong, we need our human rights as survivors wrote into law then we can bring them to court for this.

@ Elizabeth you as a child of a survivor should be fully entitled to access this fund, this is part of what we are fighting for, this well need a change to the legislation i feel, but it is what we were promised, i have kids myself so will not stop untill this is so, you can use any of my content as you wish, anything that furthers or cause is a good thing and as always good to have you a part of this. Michael

[james fox]

good man michiel a fine letter in deed well said . james fox 

[Barbie]

Hi Micheal, you could contact Niall Mooran, Irish Daily Mirror News Editor [e-mail]  or call him at 01 868 8602 and ask if he would run it for you. Also Niamh Griffin, at The Irish Mail on Sunday 0863183321 or look for her on facebook she is good!!! Barbara

[micheal]

Thanks James, will do Barbara thanks Michael

[jack colleton]

Hello Michael and thanks for your response. I Understand so much had been rushed through as Bertie Ahern was on his way out. No time allowed for changes never mind even discussion!  I was just saying that some very serious outstanding issues remain not redressed / settled, ie issues not dealt with via the Redress Board.

[jack colleton]

I don't know if going through the redress board gave me more rights to Caranua? Does anybody know?:-

Elizabeth. I am not at sure what the answer is to your question but I seem to think if YOU have received an award via the Redress Boards then you are indeed entitled to help from Caranua.