So who are we really?

WE are the International Social Service, ISS for short.

Even if in certain countries we are called something else, it doesn’t matter!

WE do all we can to protect and support children and families separated by borders.

WE work to safeguard children placed in vulnerable situations or deprived of their families often for reasons they do not fully grasp such as economic and social migration, complex social family problems, neglect, child trafficking and abduction.

Braunschweig - Riot in the venerable Braunschweig Cathedral (built in 1173). Cantor Gerd-Peter Münden (55) ran the largest Protestant singing school in Germany there and sang with hundreds of children every week.

But now he was fired without notice after 23 years!

Because it degrades women and children to commodities and damages their human dignity. This is what cathedral preacher Cornelia Götz writes in an e-mail to 600 schoolchildren's parents (is available to BILD am SONNTAG). The cantor vehemently disagrees.

What happened? Gerd-Peter Münden has been cathedral cantor since 1999 and married the Colombian Esteban Builes-Münden (33) in 2020. Both want to start a family, have a child carried by two surrogate mothers in the Colombian capital Bogotá and bring them to Germany.

The cantor told his colleagues about this and applied for leave in early 2022 so that he could fly to Colombia. The cathedral preacher then wrote her angry email, arguing that surrogacy makes women “a pure means of their own desire to have children” and exploits their weak position in an emerging country.

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Against Child Trafficking

Date: Wed 16. Mar 2022 at 16:20

Subject: Fwd: Child Rights / Whistleblower

To:

Comedian Peter Pannekoek receives massive acclaim on social media after he called the out-of-home placements of children of benefit parents 'state kidnappings' in This was the news . He hit the nail on the head about the more than 1115 children who are still not at home, is the consensus. Both Peter's name and the hashtags #1115children and #stateabductions are trending on Twitter. MP Pieter Omtzigt has meanwhile argued for a hotline and an independent investigation.

“If one child is kidnapped tomorrow, the country will be ablaze. Do we have Amber Alerts, searches in forests'', said Peter on Thursday evening in front of 1.2 million viewers on NPO 1. Now there are 1115 children away from home, they have been 'working on it' for six months, but there is still no answer. single child at home, says Peter about Omtzigt's observation this week.

Six months ago, the cabinet acknowledged that more than 1115 children of parents who were victims of the allowance affair were placed out of their homes between 2015 and 2020 . The children ended up with a foster family or an institution. Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the matter "very serious" and promised to look into it carefully. It is mindblowing that the children have still not been reunited with their parents six months later, said Pannekoek.

,,It is said that there is a team on it, they are working hard on it,'' said the comedian. "Suppose there are fifty people in the inspectorate on this case, who can get one child back a week, can't they?" He does not understand that (until now) there is hardly any fuss about it. ,,I doubt all the time: either we don't realize how bad it is, or we realize it somewhere, but we just don't want to see it, because it's so bad'', says Peter.

Staatsontvoeringen

The pulmonologist denounces an "insult to the victims of the Mediator" after according to Franceinfo, the government confirmed the 800,000 euros in subsidies to Servier laboratories, sentenced in 2021 for "aggravated deception" and "homicides and involuntary injuries" in the health scandal.

A grant that does not pass. The pulmonologist Irène Frachon , at the origin of the Mediator affair marketed by Servier laboratories, denounced Friday on franceinfo a “scandal” after according to franceinfo, the government confirmed the 800,000 euros subsidy to Servier laboratories.

“It's an insult to the victims of Pick. It would be laughable if it weren't just disturbing. And if that did not show a total cynical indifference to public health issues, ”she said after the revelations of franceinfo .

Certain drugs deemed useless or even dangerous

The media revealed on Friday that the pharmaceutical group would receive a state subsidy to manufacture more molecules "of major therapeutic interest" in France and regain its pharmaceutical sovereignty. Among the five drugs concerned, some are considered useless or even dangerous by the health authorities, as revealed this week by Le Canard Enchaîné. These are Triplixam and Vastarel, produced in the Gidy plant (Loiret).

The Council on General Affairs and Policy (#CGAP) has decided to include the @RPerdues Foundation on the list of observers for @HCCH_TheHague #review #Conclusion #amendment #hcch What a new milestone! #Adoption #Guatemala #illegal adoptions

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The challenge

Figures from Statistics Netherlands show that in 2019 more than 443,000 children received some form of youth care. Nearly 43,000 of these children received youth care with residence. More than 21,000 children have been taken in by a foster family (see the bottom of this page for an explanation). It is important to know that children are not simply placed out of the house. Before the out-of-home placement, less drastic help is first given to parents and their child. Only if this does not help enough, out-of-home placement becomes an option. In addition, where possible, efforts are made to return the child to his or her parents. These rights are enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Unfortunately, Defense for Children receives signals through the Children's Rights Helpdesk that out-of-home placement and return do not always go well.

What are we doing?

We investigate what goes well in the out-of-home placement of children and what could be improved. The aim of the project is to gain better insight into the practice of out-of-home placements. On the one hand, we want to get a grip on the good practices and, on the other hand, on the bottlenecks that stand in the way of preventing custodial placement and hinder relocation after custodial placement. Where necessary, we map out points for improvement and possible solutions.

During this project Defense for Children focuses on children aged 0 to 18 years who have been forcibly removed from their homes with the intervention of a juvenile court judge, on parents whose children have been removed from their homes and on professionals such as social workers and foster care workers.

The European Council has re-elected Charles Michel as President. His second term of 2.5 years starts on June 1, 2022 and ends on November 30, 2024. Michel was also reappointed President of the Euro Summit for the same period.

He is the third full-time President of the European Council since the post was created by the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009.

Web page of Charles Michel, President of the European Council

Photos and videos by Charles Michel

biography

Imagine if there was someone out there in the world who was your mirror image.

Someone who looked exactly like you, but was a total stranger.

That’s how twin brothers George Skrzynecky and Lucian Poznanski lived their entire lives… as strangers.

The twins hail from Germany and were born in 1946 after their mother Elizabeth, who was a Polish, Catholic, was freed from a labor camp at the end of World War II, according to the BBC.

She became ill after giving birth and was unable to care for them so she had to give them up for adoption. The brothers were then sent to Poland and adopted into different homes.

Myths and facts about the 'state kidnappings' after the allowance affair: this is what it really is - Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism

Myths and facts about the 'state kidnappings' after the allowance affair: that's how it really is

MARGOT SMOLENAARS

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