In association with
Omroep Gelderland
NOS News•today, 06:57
Foster children, their parents and care providers involved have reported poor care since 2021. Nothing was done with these signals, including a personal complaint letter and a Safe at Home report, according to the regional broadcaster’s investigation.
Salvation Army
At least two children at the care farm in Wekerom were under the guardianship of the Salvation Army. One of those children still lives full-time at the care farm. It concerns an 8 year old girl. Nothing seems to have happened with reports of abuses.
The girl has been living at the care farm in Wekerom since 2019. Her mother has been fighting a legal battle for years to have her daughter removed from there. But because the woman has no parental authority, this proves complicated. A Salvation Army guardian decides what happens to the girl. Despite several reports of poor care, the girl has been living in Wekerom for five years.
Documents from 2021 show that the girl was hit in the face after the toddler spit in the childminder’s face. The Salvation Army knows about that incident, but left her there, Omroep Gelderland reports.
A report will be made to Veilig Thuis in 2022. Care professionals from the neighborhood team write in this report, which is in the hands of the broadcaster, that the care for the 8-year-old girl on the farm is inadequate. Moreover, they confirm that nothing has been done about the mother’s complaints. They write that the placement on the farm is unwise, partly because of the extreme religious beliefs of the owner.
According to Peer van der Helm, lecturer in Residential Youth Care at Leiden University of Applied Sciences, it is very likely that the Salvation Army has been informed of this report. According to former lawyer Petra Smit, who represented the mother for years, no action was taken. “You should at least conduct further investigation. That has not been done, it’s scandalous.”
Van der Helm: “If there is a strong suspicion of child abuse, you have no choice as an organization. You always have to investigate it.”
‘Want to a better place’
In August 2022, the Salvation Army’s independent complaints committee received a letter from a 15-year-old boy who was currently living on the care farm. He writes that he has no freedom of religion, that his phone is traced, his messages are monitored and that he is not allowed to meet with friends. He ends his letter with: “I would like to go to another, better place.”
His guardian from the Salvation Army knows about his situation and the complaints made and calls them “serious”, but the Salvation Army does not handle the complaint further. The boy runs away from the care farm a month later and demands a new location. He gets that too.
‘Hands behind my back’
The fact that the 8-year-old girl is the only one still living in Wekerom is unpalatable for the mother. “I’ve been standing on the sidelines for five years watching what’s happening there. I sit with my hands behind my back. It’s terrible. My heart just breaks.”
The Salvation Army Youth Protection & Probation Foundation (LJ&R) did not respond to questions from Omroep Gelderland and NOS. “We cannot and will not respond substantively to your case-related questions,” the spokesperson said. The owner of the care farm also does not want to respond.
