60 Minutes Australia: The long way home (2017), part one

well to start at the end this story proves the power of love can overcome truly impossible odds but the beginning of it is just plain heartbreaking a five year old boy gets hopelessly lost from his mother in a bustling city market in the Philippines he can't find her so eventually he's taken to an orphanage and he's lucky he's adopted by a caring Australian family it goes on to lead a happy and successful life here except something is always missing six months ago 30 years after getting lost joel de cartier couldn't ignore the pain any longer he had to find his birth mother but in a country of 100 million where would he even start to look at then you'd missing blame 35 year-old Joel de Carter a is looking for himself nicknamed missing boy 1985 there's our 5 years old in this hot crowded Filipino marketplace a missing boy he is searching for answers have you seen him he needs to find clues about a little boy lost here in 1985 1988 hoping it might lead him to his mother a woman whose face he can't remember whose name he doesn't know do you know anyone who's been around here for a long time Joel's incredible tale begins right here in the poor outskirts of Manila in the Philippines I guess my earliest memories of my mother being a dressmaker so just remember this presence and this love that sort of came out of my mum it was one small moment that changed the course of his life I literally remember walking out here and cried back in 1985 five-year-old Joel woke up in his home near the market to find his single mother already gone she left for work in a sewing factory early that morning leaving him in the care of her flatmate she didn't want to wake me so she just went off to work and left me at home and it wasn't like she left me at home by myself like I was in the house of like you know it was like five occupants and I remember waking up and you know and she wasn't there and you know the first child's instinct is to look for their their mother the five-year-old Joel sit out on the unforgiving back streets hoping to find his mum eventually he reached the covered sprawling food market when you're inside it's easy to see how a small boy could get lost in this chaotic crowded maze how long do you think you were wandering around here all day I reckon I would have been wandering around all day trying to find an errand it would have been a bit of a horror movie to your eyes yeah like with all the knives and the pig heads and I would have been panicking when Joel wandered in here looking for his mum imagine how frightening and daunting it must have been as a tiny five-year-old his view of this world would have looked a lot more like this a jumbled frenzy of hustle and bustle and lots of legs attached to some very strange faces miraculously though one man recognized that this little boy was genuinely lost and rescued him from this crowded marketplace an amazing Jose Menzel Oh a kind taxi driver saved John the self a thought it was so lucky so lucky that a decent man saw then boys lost get a choice whether to take advantage or do the right thing if it wasn't for him chances are I could have ended up who knows where I could've ended up Joel was dropped off at a shelter for children an orphanage they searched everywhere for his mother with no luck he was assigned a social worker who appeared in court on his behalf to make the young Filipino foundling available for international adoption this lonely place became the only home a young Joel remembers it was 18 months 18 months and lives in the orphanage must have seemed like a lifetime at that age yeah being there for so long it just that's what you think that that that's your life now and it's just sitting and waiting and just just wondering if they're going to come and pick me up eventually a young Joel realized his mum wasn't going to come but then just like that his life story changed when you look back at that photo is quite angelic isn't it Oh Annie Spain angelic all his life a young Melbourne couple arrived desperate to adopt the tiny boy they'd only seen in photographs he was a dear little boy he looked beautiful and he had a lovely little nature by the end of the first day thought that cities are keeper oh definitely most definitely yes if you can imagine like these people look different they smell different excited good friend but there was no hesitation when I when my mother kara said you know would you like to live release release news people in Australia I was like yet I do you know get me out of here Julie DiCaro ray is Joel's adoptive mum she couldn't wait to bring him home I'll never forget we got onto the Qantas aircraft and joel was just a little giddy with oh yeah the young Filipino adoptee settled quickly into life in suburban Melbourne he just slotted in beautifully he was determined that he was going to speak English he learned English from watching Tony barbers sale of the century every single night every night he would repeat the words that were said on it on that show every night and Charlie barber was his hero for a long John's adoptive parents separated soon after he arrived back in Australia but Australian life with chilli still treated Joel well he graduated school looking Filipino but every bit the Aussie teenager interested in filmmaking and hip hop when I danced it's me about telling a story about and in 2008 he was a finalist on hit reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance but Joel always hoped his Filipino mum might still be alive when I think about the years and the pain and the separation loss and grief that she has she's gone through you know it's like there is a bit of that like our man like it's kind of like guilty to have had that blessed life you know so last year 30 years after he was lost he decided to begin the daunting search for his biological mother so hard like little I start and I told myself like I just have to get there when I get there figure it out but in a country of 100 million people and without so much as his mother's first name or any indication of whether she was still alive to his Aussie family the task seemed utterly impossible indeed a road to heartbreak I was worried about how he would be able to move on when he didn't find his mother in my mind it wasn't if he didn't find her it was when because there was no name there was her birthday there was no region there was nothing to go on I have always in my heart just thought that it was just a brick wall that he would strike still Joel was determined late last year he returned to the Philippines and Muniz market trying to find some thread any clue about who his mother might have been up doing out there the missing boy and then after a month of tireless searching finally unli they know how stallholders remembered a young boy named Dante who had gone missing from the same market in the 1980s Dante had very similar characteristics of me very quickly the workers at Muniz market located Dante's parents named Vicky and Danny and Mickey needed no convincing that Joel was their missing son Dante I actually started showing her other photos in the orphanage and other younger photos she she broke down crimeans and she was looking at the photos and pointing going that's Dante lavonte coming up with people a cup called the both the ki ni Jones joy turns to heartbreak one of the balloon I what I definitely want explain and how does Theresa came to the rescue the question was hanging we had to find the answer that's next of 60 minutes

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 630,365

Rating: 4.8871608 out of 5

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Id: oA-N30h6Iz4

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2017