Welcome To The Memory Book Site

It is a framework and guide to help parents or guardians to write down important information for children who are at risk of losing contact with their birth family and community. The information covers family history, traditions, personal information and important contacts,. There is plenty of scope for parents to add whatever else they want their child to know. More detailed information is given in The Story.

Originally the Memory Book was written for families living with HIV/Aids, where there was a risk that parents would die before their children were independent. But it has been equally useful in situations where parents have died or been separated from their children for many other reasons, including war, migration, family breakdown, imprisonment or death or separation for many other causes.

When parents began writing their Memory Books it meant facing the facts about very serious problems in their families. This made them realise the importance of talking openly with their children and planning for the long term future. These and other difficult questions led on to development of the Memory Project Training Programme. The aim was to give parents basic information and skills about child development, opening up communications in the family, how to find guardians and make safe plans and how to use the law to make the plans stick if needed in the future.

Over time, as parents asked different questions, the training programme expanded to cover 10 main topics which were taught as a “package” to parents attending a one-week course with trained trainers. This worked well for the minority of parents who are within reach of a training course. But of course that opportunity is not available for most families. So the main topics have now been re-organised and are available on this website for individuals or small informal groups to use as they wish. The writers of this website realise its far from ideal to work alone or without professional support, but hope that the training topics will go some way to answer some of the burning questions that parents ask. To find out more about the training topics go to the Training Topics page.

The information on the website today is just the starting point. In future it can grow, responding to questions or suggestions raised by the people who use it. For example we could:

• include useful ideas from individuals or groups who have used the Memory Book or training materials;
• give space to those of you who would like to write a blog on your Memory Work experiences;
• set up a system for people with relevant experience who would be willing to offer support to self-help groups who would welcome a mentor;
• increase the scope of the Resources section to include ideas for activities, wise words, links to other useful websites;
• and of course with your help, produce more translations of the Memory Book guides so that it is avaialble to more families around the world;

At the top of the left hand column, on every page, you'll find a link to the Quick Website Guide to all the content on this site. Also in this column has news stories covering Memory Projects, Children & HIV/Aids, Childhood & Grief and Child Rights and Family Law

The menu links at the top of each page and the links in the right hand column take you to the website's materials, content and contact forms. If you still cannot find what you need try the site search form, always located in right hand column.