Minnamurra's William Campbell was known by two names when he was a kid: his surname or 114.
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There were no endearing nicknames, definitely no hugs, and no affection from the adults who were his guardians.
Campbell, 76, grew up in a series of children's homes and foster care placements and 114 was his locker number at one of the large boys' homes in which he lived.
He was first placed in a children's home at the age of 2½, along with his twin sisters, who were two years older.
It was during WWII and his father was serving overseas. His mother had a mental illness which prevented her from caring for the children.
After his father's return from the war, the Campbells lived together for six months but the parent's relationship deteriorated and the siblings were sent to a series of children's homes around Sydney.
In the early years, Campbell lived with his sisters. Later they were separated when Campbell was placed in boys' homes.
Campbell had a grim start in life, fraught with challenges including a lack of love, emotional support, and stability.
"It wasn't a happy childhood at all," he reflects.
"Although I was there with hundreds of other kids I never bonded and I was always very lonely.
"I found my best times were when I did things like milking the cow or going down sitting and watching the fish. I could spend hours just watching fish swimming around the fish pond. I found solace in those type of things. I also enjoyed sports and the athletic things."
Campbell says although there were common bonds between the boys in the children's homes, lasting friendships were not formed.
"It was difficult to make friends," he says.
"Even though we mixed, and we would support each other in some ways, on a personal basis it was hard. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we always wanted to get out and we were always looking for something over the fence."
That "something over the fence" could not be found within his own dysfunctional family.
Campbell says his father was a heavy drinker and gambler and he suffered from recurrent malaria after the war.
His mother developed manic depression, now known as bipolar disorder, in her teenage years and lived with it as an adult, in an era when the treatment and understanding of the condition was still developing.
"In those days it was an extremely difficult time for her and she couldn't cope with us children," he says.
"The saddest part of all my childhood was witnessing her going through the shock treatment and to see the results of that was unbelievable."
When Campbell was finally free of life in children's homes, at the age of 14, he found the scars of his bitter experiences deep and lasting.
"You don't come out in a good space when you do eventually come out," he says of institutionalised care.
"You are full of many emotions including anger, bitterness, and resentfulness over the abuse that happened to you in those facilities. You also feel jealousy and insecurity.
"You are left with all these emotions and you don't know how to deal with them."
Despite the damage, Campbell was able to turn his life around in his early 20s, due to two events: meeting his future wife Dawn and becoming a Christian.
"My biggest reward was Dawn and one of the miracles of my life was that she stood by and stuck with me," he says.
Yet it was never an easy path for the Campbells, in the early days of their marriage particularly, when Campbell had to seek treatment for alcoholism.
"At 23, my doctor told me at the time that I was the youngest alcoholic he had ever seen," he says.
"And I was a rip snorter alcoholic then, let me tell you, and Dawn went through all that with me. It was in 1961 and our daughter (Donna) was only three months old when I was hospitalised."
Once again, Campbell got through a terrible situation through being a survivor.
"Then I went completely the other way," he says. "Since the 8th of May, 1961, I have not had a drop of alcohol past my lips.
"I transitioned into a workaholic so then my life was conditioned to becoming a success and I was compelled to show people I could succeed at things. So when I went into the motor trade I did succeed and it turned out to be a good business."
Campbell had a psychological breakdown in 1971 and put his life back on track by joining the Uniting Church, mentored by Dr Robert Hillman.
"I was being good, and I was trying, but I wasn't quite there," says Campbell of his religious faith.
A turning point came in 1994 when Dawn became critically ill and spent 47 days on life support in Wollongong Hospital.
"It was a starry night and I went out of the hospital and I made the biggest deal with God that anyone could ever make," he says. "I was now going to be the most saintly of all saints, if he spared her.
"But it was from that experience, and when she recovered, and everyone except Donna and I were writing her off because they couldn't see a recovery . . . over that period I had an experience with Christ which completely changed my life."
In 1995, Campbell's health was deteriorating and he had a successful quintuple bypass.
"It meant God got us both right and then we were fumbling through for a while, we were in recovery mode, and then I started to put this service model together of what I thought would be the best way to care for children who were abused, neglected or homeless and provide them with the nearest thing you could get to a nuclear family.
"It became a passion.
"We decided that instead of retiring we would die with our boots on and we'd spend the rest of our lives taking children into care and creating a foster care agency."
Campbell started the William Campbell Foundation in 1998, motivated to improve the lives of children who have been removed from their own families by government child protection services.
The foundation, a non-profit organisation and registered children's charity, runs a foster care program in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven.
At the moment, 43 children are in the foster care program. Most of the foster carers live in their own homes in the community and are given training and ongoing support through the foundation.
In addition, five children live at a home on the charity's farming property at Nowra Hill.
"We look at our agency as being a ministry in a sense and it's got our DNA in it," he says. "Nothing surprises me with a child's behaviour because I've either experienced it or I've seen someone else with the same behaviours.
"We were determined to create a program that provided heartfelt care to children and one that did not become bureaucratic. From my life experiences, and our perspective, that's what I was looking for."
Campbell tried to create a model that took a holistic approach and high on his list of priorities was to address the educational, health, welfare, social, cultural, emotional and spiritual needs of children.
He could see that without a quality education children in out-of-home care would be at a disadvantage throughout their lives.
A school for children in care, named the William Campbell College, was opened in the Shoalhaven in 2010.
"I wanted to open a school to give the education that is so lacking in all these children because a lot of them have not been to school or they've been to school on a limited basis," he says.
"With all the changes I had, I was probably in 10 or more different schools. You haven't got a chance to meet up with other kids or to form any sort of relationship.
"It was very difficult because in the curriculum the other kids were so far ahead and if you haven't filled in the gaps you are not going to reach them."
The school, he says, is committed to seeing children regain the potential they may have lost within the broader education system.
Campbell's service to children and young people, particularly through the provision of crisis accommodation, was recognised with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in June 2010.
Campbell feels it is his duty to be an advocate for those whose voices may not be heard in society.
"I have always felt that I am talking for the kids that didn't have the mouth I had and that couldn't talk like I could," he says.
"So they were in the background. They were missing out. No-one could understand them because they didn't even know how to explain themselves.
"It wasn't that they were dumb, it was just that they were sort of holding it all in and I was more gregarious saying it needs to get out."
Campbell says the stand-out feature of the William Campbell Foundation was the caring attitude of the staff.
"I made the comment the other day that in all our organisation I couldn't look at a staff member and say: 'I think we could do without this person or this person doesn't quite come up to what our expectations are and where we have set the bar.'
"I think when you can say that it says a lot for your staff," he says.
Campbell says the carers and the sacrifices they make to provide for the children in out-of-home care are inspirational.
"My heart goes out to these carers," he says. "It's so difficult to have non-birth children and give them unconditional love and to really work with them and with all the difficulties that that encompasses and then for them to come out the other end still smiling."
Campbell urges more people to become foster carers, in light of figures which show there has been a 35 per cent increase in child abuse cases in the Illawarra.
The William Campbell Foundation has set up a new office in Dapto to meet the growing need for more foster care in the Illawarra.
"The Illawarra has some of the highest rates of child abuse in NSW," Campbell says.
Anyone interested in fostering should contact the William Campbell Foundation on 1300 130 585 or visit wcfoundation.org.au.