Regular visitors to our home page may notice that we have a recent addition to our list of useful links. This is the website of Serefo. The full name of Serefo is the Separation and Reunion Forum and it was established in 1999 following a meeting between Dr. Elaine Arnold and a small group of women of African Caribbean origin. They had been interviewed about their separation from their parents during their early years and their subsequent reunion with them. The women recalled experiences of the pain of parental loss, as well as the loving care received from their grandmothers and other members of the extended families. They remembered the confusion they felt when on arriving in a strange new country, they were reunited with parents who were strangers to them and introduced to younger siblings who had been born in the UK. They also discussed some of the difficulties they encountered at home, at school, and in the wider community; a familiar experience to many born and left with surrogate parents during their formative years.
The forum has evolved from these initial meetings and now organises, workshops, conferences and publishes papers online which have been presented at its annual conferences. Initially, the Separation and Reunion Forum worked mainly with people of African Caribbean origin who experienced broken attachment as a result of separation and loss but it soon became apparent the women's reactions to their experiences, the grieving and the mourning of loss are relevant to human beings regardless of ethnicity and so the Forum's aims are now inclusive of all who have suffered loss. Find out more about Serefo at www.serefo.org.uk/
This item was first posted on 26th July, 2011, on the home page of the goodenoughcaring website at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/Home.aspx?cpid=1
