GERMAN REFUGEE CHILDREN

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29107, 20 January 1960, Page 2

GERMAN REFUGEE CHILDREN

Help From Ockenden

Venture

Before the World Refugee Year comes to an end in June, 1960, it is hoped that 200 children from displaced persons’ camps in West Germany will be being educated and cared for in Britain, under the Ockenden Venture.

This unique scheme, founded by Miss Joyce Pearce in 1951, has already helped 96 children in homes founded for them in Donington Hall, Leicestershire. Miss Pearce says that the venture does not take children unless it can guarantee them financially. The scheme is a voluntary one and depends on subscriptions. The children’s stay may be 10 years or longer, and each year they return to Germany to visit their parents.

Food, shelter and clothing are not enough. “The children must have affection and a link with home.” said an official, “for ours is not just an institutional approach.” Already results are being shown. Sarmite Erenpreiss, a 21-year-old Latvian girl, came under the wing of the Ockenden Venture when she was aged 14 She is now in her third year as a history student at Nottingham University, and hopes to work for the United Nations. In 1958 she helped the venture by escorting a party of children back from Germany where they were visiting their parents. Another girl is reading languages at London University and several are training as nurses. Of the 40 boys at Donington Hall, 10 are at local schools, seven are apprenticed locally, and the other 23 have lessons at the hall.