Highlights

Across the European Union (EU), hundreds of thousands of children live in residential institutions. Children with disabilities are among the groups of children over-represented in the still existing large institutions in Europe. The impact of institutionalization is severe and can last a lifetime. The EU and its Member States are commited to supporting the transition from institutional to care that is family and community-based, also known as deinstitutionalisation (DI). Supporting this transition requires evidence-based and informed DI policies and enhanced child protection monitoring and evaluation frameworks and data systems.

UNICEF’s Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO) has identified the transition from institutional care to family and community-based care (de-institutionalization) as a regional flagship area of intervention. Part of this work focuses on strengthening the measurement of progress towards deinstitutionalisation and of outcomes for children in care and careleavers across Europe. This requires strengthening the evidence on these groups of children to support the EU and Member States in making informed decisions around key policy priorities such as the European Child Guarantee, focused on breaking the cycle of poverty and social exclusion.

In an effort to further understand alternative care data systems in Europe and the statistics that these systems produce, and help governments and the EU make informed decisions, UNICEF and Eurochild jointly carried out the DataCare project to map alternative care data and data systems across the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU-27) and the United Kingdom (UK). Over 50 experts across Europe collected data and information which was analysed by the research team comprised of UNICEF, Eurochild members and the Eurochild Secretariat.

This was informed by learnings and the ongoing work with Transformative Monitoring for Enhanced Equity (TransMonEE); a research programme initiated and managed by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre and transferred to UNICEF ECARO in 2007, with the aim of strengthening research-policy work linkages. The database contains over 500 social and economic indicators including indicators on child protection. Data covers the period from 1989 to the present day, with disaggregated data for many indicators available since 2005. The database is updated yearly due to collaboration with national statistical offices in 29 countries (including 11 EU Member States) and other international databases. In recent years, child protection indicators have been reviewed and refined in consultation with TransMonEE members and regional experts.

https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8323&furtherPubs=yes

This target group discussion paper captures the situation of children in alternative care in EU countries. It shows that an effective decrease in the number of children in institutional care can only be sustained through measures including the development of family support services, the strengthening of other alternative care options such as foster care or kinship care, and the adoption of high-quality alternative care standards.

This paper was prepared in the context of the Feasibility study for a Child Guarantee.

Almost a quarter of all children in the EU are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The European Parliament and the European Commission called for a Child Guarantee to ensure that every child in Europe in a vulnerable situation has access to free healthcare, free education, free childcare, decent housing and adequate nutrition. This study assesses the feasibility, efficiency and overall benefits of a Child Guarantee scheme. It also includes concrete suggestions for improving policies and programmes at EU and national levels.

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Klokhuis presenter Habtuma de Hoop has made a special trip to his native Ethiopia. He was reunited there with the woman who cared for him for several months as a baby. Habtuma de Hoop is presenter of the Klokhuis and councilor in the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân. He is a real Frisian: he speaks Frisian, lives on a rural farm and in summer you can find him on the handball fields.

However, his appearance is not typically Frisian, because he has a dark complexion. Habtuma was born in Ethiopia and, when he was a few weeks old, was abandoned in a cafe in Addis Ababa. Police officers took baby Habtuma to an orphanage.

Captured

He was there for a few weeks until he ended up with a wealthy Ethiopian couple who took in and cared for orphans. When he was eight months old, Emke and Tineke de Hoop from Wommels picked him up. They adopted Habtuma through the organization Wereldkinderen. Habtuma knows nothing of his past; He got his name in the orphanage and his second name Emke comes from his Frisian father. Even his real date of birth is unknown.

Now, twenty years later, Habtuma has returned to Ethiopia with his family. A real culture shock. People who have more than fifteen children and a few cows and sheep live in small huts. In the capital Addis Adeba there are many beggars and homeless people are sleeping on the street under some cardboard.

The Dutch Maud de Boer-Buquicchio has been appointed today as chairman of the board of ECPAT International. Founded in 1990, the organization is committed worldwide to combating and preventing the sexual exploitation of children. In our country, Defense for Children and ECPAT Netherlands form one organization. Carrie van der Kroon, coordinator of international programmes, lobbying and advocacy at Defense for Children – ECPAT, has been representing Western Europe on the board for three months. We are delighted with the appointment of both Maud de Boer-Buquicchio and Carrie van der Kroon and wish them both every success.

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio has more than earned her spurs in the field of gender equality and the promotion of children's rights, especially in the field of protecting children against all forms of violence. For example, she was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children for two terms, from 2014 to 2020. She focused on country visits and researching online violence against children, illegal adoptions, commercial surrogacy, child labor and the sale and sexual exploitation of children in sports. Not only the causes were discussed, but also possible protective measures and remedies.

Born in Hoensbroek in 1944, De Boer – Buquicchio attended grammar school in Deventer and studied French language and literature in Leiden, after which she switched to a law degree. After graduating, she started her working life at the European Human Rights Commission. This was followed by positions at the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe. Throughout her career, she has always worked closely with civil society and the ECPAT network. De Boer – Buquicchio, who has been awarded by several countries, said when she accepted her new position:

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio

KUMAMOTO – In a nationwide first, a hospital in Kumamoto said Friday that it plans to submit a birth notification of a baby who was born under a confidentiality agreement in December without including the mother’s name.

The mother, who is under 20 years old, gave birth to the baby at Jikei Hospital but declined to publicly disclose her identity.

The woman, who had been unable to tell her family about her pregnancy, left the hospital a month ago saying that she cannot raise the baby by herself, hospital officials said.

She continues to seek a family that can adopt her baby, the officials said. She believes that the baby will be better off if cared for by adoptive parents who pass strict screenings, they said.

The woman wishes for her identity to be disclosed to the baby when the child becomes an adult, the hospital officials said. Earlier this month, the baby was transferred from the hospital to a nursery.

Adoption is often not a rosy story, even if you were raised in a happy Dutch family. The committee investigated the role and responsibility of the Dutch government in intercountry adoptions. On 8 February she presented the results of the study. There is often a dark reality behind adoption stories full of abuses. With this report, there is finally recognition for the pain that many adoptees experience. Joëlle Raus Prudence, herself adopted from Mauritius, explains why this is so important.

February 8 was an emotional day. The conclusions of the Joustra Committee's report are clear. It confirms what I and many other adult adoptees have known for a long time: the adoption system is fueling child trafficking worldwide. The process is related to serious abuses of which the Dutch government has been aware since the 1960s. Following the conclusions of the report, intercountry adoption has been completely shut down for the time being. It gives me a strange feeling of relief that the minister is adopting the recommendations in the report.

Although I also immediately think of the grief of intended parents -my parents once were too-, it is time to see what is wrong. Recognizing that adoption is in many cases about love, but it is also a form of human trafficking that hides untold suffering. Especially in the case of closed adoptions † The report states that the origin of the children is often difficult to trace and that the system is perpetuated by many perverse financial incentives, which make the adoption business a lucrative sector. In the past fifteen years that I have delved into my own adoption history, I have heard the most horrible experiences from other adoptees and involved. I've heard stories of young women and girls in parts of Southeast Asia being trafficked to bear children in so-called baby farms† Stories about parents whose children are stolen on their way to the store. There are children who have been 'lost' after natural disasters. And stories about women in Haiti who become pregnant without being married and are manipulated by the (Catholic) church to give up their child for a small fee. The list is endless.

However, this does not happen in a vacuum. It starts with the unfair distribution of wealth and the arrogant attitude of the West. Many people feel parenthood is a right and sometimes go to such extreme lengths to have a child that they override the child's rights. In this way a system of supply and demand has arisen. Many stakeholders in the adoption process are convinced that a child is better off in the wealthy West. The Catholic Church played a decisive role in my adoption. This didn't stop when she gave me up. To this day, they continue to convince her that she made the right choice at the time. It revolves around the perception of the outside world: the shame, the opportunities for mother and child. And to generate income of course.

Being born under less prosperous circumstances is often seen as the guarantee of an unhappy life. That's exactly that arrogant look from the West. People don't think about what it's like to be a child who doesn't know exactly where she comes from and who, when she starts her search, finds out that the information in her adoption file is wrong. Without leads, it is impossible to find your biological family. That pain is overwhelming for some and can result in a life full of grief and psychological problems. I myself had a happy childhood with my white, Dutch parents. But still the search for myself, where I come from and the loyalty conflict that comes with it, is the common thread in my life. But imagine that you ended up in a dysfunctional family, abuse and all that on top of the adoption issue. How do you find a way in life? It's something we don't like to hear, but in the Netherlands there are enough adoptions that are not successful. Not least because the adoptive family does not meet the requirements.

“We must stress that under the law, the right to adopt a child is granted to individuals, and not to couples,” Defensor, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Welfare of Children, said in a statement over the weekend.

“Our adoption law does not discriminate against LGBT individuals who may wish to adopt children who are legally available for adoption,” stressed Defensor, who is running for Quezon City mayor in the upcoming May 9, 2022 polls.

The solon made the clarification to counter the widespread public misperception that only a heterosexual couple or husband and wife may adopt a child. By his explanation, people in a same-sex relationship also have a right to do the same.

“We want to encourage the adoption of abandoned and neglected children so that they may enjoy the living conditions conducive to their full development,” Defensor said.

“We would also prefer domestic over foreign adoption to preserve the child’s identity and culture here at home,” he added.

The India Channel was launched at the end of 1994. There are contacts with a number of children's homes in Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh (South and Southeast India). Children of all ages reside in these homes. Limited information is available about the social and medical background of the children. The care in the homes is good, but India is and remains a third world country.

IndiaSo the possible consequences of malnutrition must be taken into account. These are similar to those of prematurity. Only if domestic adoption is not possible, the children are released for foreign adoption after 6 months.

Parents' requirements

some homes have childlessness requirements

obligation to prepare a report 4 times a year for the first 5 years with photos, etc.

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Introduce…..

Have you ever been so hungry you became delusional? I have, when as a child in care I was placed in a hostel a few months after finishing my GCSEs. I remember rummaging through old birthday cards in the futile hope of finding a tenner.

Despite my benefits and the job I did alongside school, I could not afford food and electricity – let alone books, school trips, or clothes. I once wrote an essay with a candle in one hand and a pen in the other. But the lack of human connection hurt most. In my first year of sixth form, I was in hospital for four days before “support” staff realised I was gone. I was 17, hooked to a drip, alone and terrified.

The state was a lousy parent to me. It does not care for all its children equally – in fact, thousands of children in the care system in England are not entitled to care at all. Once they turn 16, children in care can be placed by local authorities in shared houses with adult strangers, bedsits and hostels with no adult carers.

Before last year, children in care as young as 11 lived in “care-less” settings. The Department for Education has introduced secondary legislation which bans this – but only for children aged 15 and under. This leaves more than 6,400 children in England, a third of all 16- to 17-year-olds in care, unprotected. And it threatens thousands more, by allowing private companies to saturate the market when foster carers are in short supply.

In the absence of a government that cares, our hope rests on this week’s judicial review. Article 39, a small charity, has taken the DfE to court on the grounds that the secondary legislation discriminates against children aged 16-17. The charity is backed by more than 10,700 people who signed a #KeepCaringTo18 petition. Last week, I was one of six care-experienced adults who delivered it to Downing Street. The judge has now heard evidence from both sides, and we’re awaiting his decision.