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Someone Else's Mother by Caroline Irby | Buy for Good

$55.00

As a child, Caroline was looked after by a Filipina woman called Juning, who lived with Caroline’s family in London for 22 years, while her own four children grew up on a small island in the Philippines, 7,000 miles away.  In ‘Someone Else’s Mother’, Caroline tells Juning’s story and brings into focus the lives of the children she left, carefully interweaving these stories with her own recollections of a childhood spent with their mother.  The book has received very positive reviews and an exhibition will follow once life opens up again post-COVID.

Buy for Good In collaboration with Caroline Irby, proceeds from each sale (less postage and handling) will be donated to HELP for Domestic Workers - an established charity supporting migrant domestic workers to gain access to justice and receive fair and equal treatment under the law in Hong Kong. especially hard hit during the pandemic with many left stranded or homeless. 

Recent figures show there are 1.77million Overseas Filipinos Workers (OFWs); 6.3% are based in Hong Kong. Collectively they funnel 134.77 billion pesos (AUD$3.9 billion) into the Philippine economy every year. For decades this movement has been female-dominated; more than 59.6% of Filipino emigrants are currently women. There isn’t a figure for how many leave children behind, but Caroline Irby grew up in the intimate care of one of these women.  


About the author Caroline Irby is a British photographer based in London. Her particular areas of interest are immigration and children. She has always written as well as photographed, starting at 17 with articles in The Independent and Evening Standard. During 2009 Caroline had a weekly photograph and interview column, “Seen and Heard”, in the Guardian Weekend Magazine, and during 2011-2012 she had a column in Mainichi newspaper, Japan: a photograph and story about a different child each week, who she has met through her work and travels.

In 2010, Caroline’s first book, A Child from Everywhere, was published by Black Dog Publishing. For this project, she photographed and interviewed children from 185 different countries, all now living in the UK. From 2014-15, Caroline was a contributing editor to Newsweek Magazine. Her work has been shown at venues including the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood, Royal Festival Hall, Somerset House, the Edinburgh G8 summit, The World Children’s Art Museum, Japan, and the National Parliament, Uganda.

Someone Else's Mother is Caroline's second book.

Reviews & Features

Publisher and Images: ‎Schilt Publishing (September 1, 2020)
Language: ‏English
Hardcover: ‏120 pages
Item Weight: 0.6kg
Dimensions: 19cm x 1.3cm x 25cm