British Home Children association launches Quebec and Alberta Facebook pages

The British Home Children Advocacy and Research Association (BHCARA) has created new Facebook pages to increase representation in Quebec, Alberta, and Manitoba and provide opportunity for people to learn about Home Children in those provinces.

Yesterday, BHCARA launched the British Home Children — Quebec Association Facebook page where they have already posted more than 130 photos taken in Knowlton, Richmond, and Sherbrooke. The Alberta page has also been launched with a few contents with plans to add much more. Very soon, we should see the page for Manitoba.

For some time, there have been active British Home Children Facebook groups for BHCARA, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.

Lori Oschefski said: “British Home Children were sent all over Canada, but Ontario seems to have its fair share of attention 〈on Facebook〉. To help focus the attention on our different provinces, we have launched our first provincial associate page, the British Home Children — Quebec Association.”

It is estimated about 118,000 children were sent to Canada from England, Scotland, Ireland, The Isle of Man, and Wales under the Child Immigration scheme from 1863-1939. These boys and girls, ranging in age from toddlers to adolescents, were all unaccompanied by their parents, even though only two percent of them were true orphans. They were brought to Canada for adoption, or as farm helpers, farm labourers and domestic servants from institutions in Great Britain. It is reported many were mistreated.

According to its website, BHCARA is “an international organization which strives to catalogue Home Child information and Home Children stories, to reconnect families unjustly torn apart by these migrant programs and to promote the story of the Home Children across the world.”

If interested in learning more about the British Home Children, you can join or follow these Facebook Home Children groups and pages:

British Home Children Advocacy & Research Association

British Home Children of Chatham Kent, Ontario

Ontario East British Home Child Family

Middlemore Atlantic Society (Nova Scotia)

British Home Children and Descendants Association (Nova Scotia)

British Home Children – Quebec Assoc.

British Home Children – Alberta Assoc.