By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 8 May 2013

Born in Poland, living in England, Sarah was six years old when she went on holiday to France with her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend. The police stopped their car for a routine traffic violation. The boyfriend fled. Sarah’s mother stayed with Sarah in the car. Drugs were found.

The police took Sarah’s mother away; she is now serving a multiyear sentence in a French prison. Sarah, who didn’t speak any French, was placed with a French foster family. It is hard to imagine what a trauma it must have been for her: one moment enjoying the excitement of a holiday, the next moment watching as her mother was led away by men whose words she couldn’t understand. She didn’t see her mother again for months.

Sarah is one of an estimated 800,000 children of prisoners growing up in Europe today. She committed no crime, yet she is surely serving a sentence. Read more

Sad news reaches us from Rio Itaya in Belen, Iquitos, Peru, where last Monday a 3-year-old boy drowned in one of the communities where our partners Niños de la comunidad (Children from the community) and INFANT have been implementing an initiative called "NN al Rescate" (Children to the rescue).

This was the first fatality from drowning since the project started, in October 2011. Until then, around five to ten young children commonly drowned in the communities each year, when the rainy season makes the river flow dangerously fast. Read more.

"Communities in Peru are taking a leadership role on this issue, both preventing violence and embracing playful learning as a critical piece of young children's development. We hope to shine some light on their efforts so that more global leaders engage in supporting our youngest citizens."

During the World Economic Forum conference in Lima, Bernard Van Leer Foundation, LEGO Foundation help children of Community-Conibo in Cantagallo envision their perfect neighborhood of their dreams using LEGO.

At the World Economic Forum conference in Lima, a group of Peruvian kids and their adult allies will make a case for why a childhood free from violence and filled with playful learning is the key to the kind of innovation that can drive economic prosperity in this century.

Read the full blog post on Huffpost.

Speech given by Lisa Jordan – Executive Director Bernard van Leer Foundation – on April 16th 2013 in Brazil at the opening of The First International Seminar of the Parliamentary Front for Early Childhood on Building a Legal Framework for Public Policies on Early Childhood.

Read the entire speech we have posted on our blog.

Watch this video to see the results of the first Transatlantic Forum on Inclusive Early Years (held in January 2013 in Ghent), supported by the Bernard van Leer Foundation. The next Forum will be held in New York City, from July 10th – 12th, 2013.

U.S. Administration Proposes Deep Cuts to Basic Education

In response to the President's proposed deep cuts to global basic education in his recent FY14 budget request, share this press release and support the Basic Education Coalition's advocacy efforts to ensure sufficient U.S. resources for vital basic education programs.

Please contact Ariel Gleicher, Acting Director of Government Relations, at agleicher@basiced.org, or 202-742-1211. Thanks for your support!

Dr Rien van Gendt, member of the Board of Trustees of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, is the proud winner of the Compass Prize. Only awarded in exceptional circumstances to the true pioneers and visionaries of European philanthropy, the Compass Prize is awarded by the EFC Management Committee and recognises outstanding contributions to the European foundation sector. The prize will be awarded during the Closing Plenary of the 2013 AGA and Conference in Copenhagen.

BvLF's annual report for 2012 is now available to download or request in printed form. It reports on national and international activities in support of our three goals: taking quality early learning to scale, reducing violence in young children's lives, and improving young children's living conditions. It features contributions by the chair of the board of trustees, Peter Bell, and the executive director, Lisa Jordan. There is an executive summary in Spanish.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation is looking to appoint a specialist in research and evaluation, based in The Hague, on an initial 12-month contract with the possibility of renewal. The deadline for applications is April 28. For further details, including how to apply, please see the terms of reference.

BvLF also continues to seek a programme officer for Tanzania and Uganda, based either in The Hague or in the region. Details are here and the deadline for applications is April 30.

In the Netherlands, campaigns against child abuse tend to talk only to adults, not children. When the subject is addressed on television, it is usually after the 8pm watershed which marks content suitable only for the over-12s. This reflects a widespread belief that child abuse is simply too sensitive or difficult an issue to discuss with children.

Het Klokhuis - an educational programme for children aged 8-12 years, produced by NTR - wants to change this. In cooperation with the Bernard van Leer Foundation, it has created four programmes on child abuse which are aimed especially at children. They will run every Tuesday in April, starting April 2nd, in the programme's usual early evening slot.

In these programmes, unprecedented in The Netherlands, Het Klokhuis presenter Dolores Leeuwin asks: Why do some parents abuse their children? Why do witnesses and victims often remain silent? What can you do about it? Children and parents openly tell their own stories about abuse, and viewers can go online to ask questions and find more information: hetklokhuis.nl/kindermishandeling.

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 28 March 2013

Today the journal of Child Development releases a new study on public preschool in the United States. Christina Weiland and Hirokazu Yoshikawa are the latest in a powerful scientific line-up to help make the investment case for young children.

What makes this study different from other studies that demonstrate the impact of preschool on children’s capacity to learn is that Christina and Hiro examined a scaled programme. As they note, “how to maintain impacts at scale is an open question in the field.”

This tricky question has bedevilled programmes across the world. Read more

The Bernard van Leer Foundation is recruiting a Programme Officer for East Africa to carry out programming in Tanzania and Uganda. The Programme Officer would be expected to play a leadership role in a consortium of private donor agencies to influence flows of investment for children. These could include developing social impact investment opportunities in partnership with private sector companies. For more details, including how to apply, download the job description.

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 6 February 2013

Since we completed our programme strategies in 2010/2011 the issue of tracking our impact has been at the top of our minds at the Bernard van Leer Foundation. The program team has developed key impact indicators from over 80 baseline research studies. These key impact indicators will allow us to track our progress over the next few years. In conjunction with Bertelsmann Foundation, the European Foundation Center and others BvLF is designing a new capacity building workshop for the European foundation sector on moving from good to great philanthropic practice. The Good to Great workshop will take place in June in Copenhagen at the European Foundation Center’s General Assembly meeting. The communications team is producing our annual report for 2012, the first since we adopted our new goals in which we can report preliminary results on creating greater opportunities for learning and growing in healthy and safe spaces. Read more

As a legacy to Pat Engle, the Bernard van Leer Foundation, along with her friends and colleagues, have established the Patrice L Engle Dissertation Award For Global Early Child Development to provide opportunities for junior scholars from or working in developing countries to conduct dissertation research in global early child development. The award includes US$5000 to support dissertation research and a 2-year student membership to the Society for Research in Child Development.

For more information about the award see www.srcd.org or request information from Patrice.Engle.grant@srcd.org

The Bernard van Leer Foundation will be present at the Women Inc festival in Amsterdam on Sunday February 17th during the talk show 'Who will take care of the children? ' (WIE ZORGT ER VOOR DE KINDEREN?)

DAVOS, Switzerland – Saturday, 26 January 2013 –– At an event organized by The Bernard van Leer Foundation, twenty global leaders including Geraldine Chin Moody, board member of UN Women Australia, Vidar Jorgensen, president of Grameen America, and Princess Mabel van Oranje, founding CEO of The Elders, gathered to demonstrate their resolve to end violence in the lives of young children. 

The first meeting of the Transatlantic Forum on Inclusive Early Years will take place from 21-23 January 2013 in Ghent, Belgium. This invite only event is about Quality Early Childhood Services for All: Addressing Disparities in Access for Children from Migrant and Low-Income Families.

The Transatlantic Forum on Inclusive Early Years is an initiative of the King Baudouin Foundation together with nine different partner foundations from both Europe and the United States - amongst them the Bernard van Leer Foundation, de LEGO Foundation and the Migration Policy Institute - bringing together leading scientists, practitioners, civil society members, business leaders and political decision-makers.

Kindergarten/Preschool Educators Invited to Enroll in a Free Online Course in English or in Spanish

Registration deadline extended to February 15, 2013!

Within the framework ISSA's Principles for Quality Pedagogy, the course consists of 12 modules which will help teachers become more intentional and reflective in their teaching.

Visit the site for more info.

On January 16th the first ‘Peutercollege’ (college for toddlers) in the Netherlands will be opened in Rotterdam by the mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb. 'Het Peutercollege' gives 2- and 3-year-old kids in Rotterdam the opportunity to develop themselves to the maximum. The 2-year-olds follow a 5 day-part and the 3-year-olds a 9 day-part course, which is high-quality and age-specific and has a value of 7650 euro’s on a yearly basis. Investing in these young children will lay a good basis for success in the future. This great initiative is funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation and Foundation De Verre Bergen.

Please note that the Bernard van Leer Foundation office will be closed during the Holiday season. We are back in the office again on Wednesday January 2nd, 2013.

We wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

One thing needs to be said before we start off this week: our thoughts are with the parents, families, relatives and friends of the innocent victims of the needless tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The Global Fund for Children has been selected as the featured charity for the Financial Times 2012 Seasonal Appeal. It was chosen by staff vote out of hundreds of applicants because of its unwavering dedication to transform the lives of the world's most vulnerable children.

The Financial Times will run twice-weekly editorials to raise the visibility of vulnerable children and the grassroots organizations that defend their rights.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation is pleased to be supporting the Why Poverty? Campaign, which is launching around the world this week with films intended to provoke viewers to ask the question: Why Poverty? We would like you to be part of this campaign. Please watch the films we’ve selected that stress the issues of poverty and young children, and share them with others.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation is supporting the Policy Round Table discussion on Early Childhood Education today and tomorrow in Leiden, The Netherlands.

Eurochild is organizing the Policy Round Table on ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) aiming to promote an European framework for quality in ECEC. It will bring together Eurochild members and national policy experts to discuss follow-up to the European Commission Communication and Council Conclusions on “Early childhood education and care: providing all our children with the best start for the world of tomorrow”.

The latest edition of Early Childhood Matters contains content developed in collaboration with the Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, an initiative of the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development and the Strategic Knowledge Cluster on Early Childhood Development. BvLF has contributed to development of the encyclopaedia's articles on societal violence in relation to early childhood.

Intended for policy-makers, service planners and providers, and parents, the online encyclopaedia is available to browse, free of charge, in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

UGANDA: Who really benefits?

A family has been supporting a child in Uganda via a charity for three years. The father and small daughter travel from UK to Uganda to see if charity makes any difference: to them or to the child they are supporting.

Why Poverty? is a ground breaking, cross-media event, online and on TV, using films to get people to talk about poverty.

BvLF is one of the supporters of this event reaching more than 500 million people around the world via television, radio, internet and live events in November 2012. Launching during one intense week, people around the world will be asking the question WHY POVERTY?

The Children and Violence Evaluation Challenge Fund announces its 2nd call for proposals to support rigorous evaluations of interventions aimed at preventing all forms of violence against children in low- and middle-income countries.

Non-profit organizations/NGOs, universities/research institutes and, exceptionally, for-profit organizations can apply as main applicants. The deadline is 17 December.

Partly funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, the Children and Violence Evaluation Challenge Fund allocated of € 759,000 to 9 evaluation projects, selected from 479 concept notes received, after the first call for proposals in August 2011.

Marking the occasion of Child Rights Day in India, the Bernard van Leer Foundation's programme director Michael Feigelson and Mallika Dutt, the founder and CEO of Breakthrough, co-wrote the following article published on The Huffington Post:

The latest edition of Early Childhood Matters, Community violence and young children: making space for hope, looks at the effects on young children of growing up in a violent community, and explores interventions from around the world which are offering practical solutions. As always, you can download the pdf, read online at issuu.com, or request a hard copy free of charge.

Individual articles from this and previous editions of ECM can now be read, discussed and shared on our dedicated new ECM website.

The website earlychildhoodmagazine.org has been set up to host individual articles from print editions of Early Childhood Matters in a way that makes them easier to share using social media and aggregator websites, and thereby reach new and broader audiences. If you have particularly enjoyed an article in this edition of Early Childhood Matters, we invite you to visit earlychildhoodmagazine.org and share it with your online networks.

This week the largest (new) media festival for young children is taking place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands: CINEKID!

The Bernard van Leer Foundation is a main sponsor of the festival. We are interested what role (new) media plays in early learning, now and in the future. Together with Cinekid and THNK, the Amsterdam School for Creative Leadership, we are hosting an international expert meeting on the future of early learning.

One of the highlights of the festival is the Media Lab. It includes a wide variety of  interactive installations that allow young children to bring their own drawings to life  (http://vimeo.com/48758405) or make their own video controls form Play-Doh or play piano on Bananas http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joylabs/makey-makey-an-invention-kit-for-everyone)

If you are in the Netherlands we highly recommend a visit to Cinekid: www.cinekid.nl

To coincide with the Think Parents! European Conference on Parenting Support, which takes place in The Hague from 10-12 October, a new report on parental involvement in early learning is published today.

Commissioned by BvLF and written by Margaret Kernan of International Child Development Initiatives, the report reviews research, policy and good practice in parental involvement in early learning of children aged 0 to 6 years.

You can download the full report or a summary leaflet.

Prijsvraag CINEKID

Jonge kinderen houden van media: Apps, games, TV, fims….

Maar wat leren ze ervan?

Deel de ervaring van jullie gezin en win dagkaarten voor het CINEKID festival.

Reageer voor 14 oktober op onze facebook pagina of door een email te sturen naar cinekid@bvleerf.nl

Now available to download or order your free printed copy is a new BvLF working paper, Delivering quality early learning in low-resource settings: Progress and challenges in Ethiopia, part of a series detailing ongoing longitudinal research by the Young Lives project.

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 5 October 2012

I sometimes feel you can learn the most about the world by talking to cab drivers. At least they seem to be the ones on my travels that cut to the core of issues. On my last trip a cab driver said to me, 'I should not be driving a cab in New York City.' He is right. He is from the Niger Delta in Nigeria. And he drives a cab because at home in the Delta there is nothing but gas flares, polluted water and war, fuelled by oil deposits. Basically, no future for him or his children. He blames his government, but oil is poison no matter where it is found. I suspect if he went to Louisiana he would find it just like home. Read more

Money spent on early childhood yields higher returns than in any other phase of life. It can also reduce galloping inequality.

The importance of early childhood investment is highlighted by BvLF's programme director in a recent article in Financial Times.

Follow the link to read the full article:
http://tinyurl.com/8no7ymg

Why Poverty? is a ground breaking, cross-media event, online and on TV, using films to get people to talk about poverty.

BvLF is one of the supporters of this event reaching more than 500 million people around the world via television, radio, internet and live events in November 2012. Launching during one intense week, people around the world will be asking the question WHY POVERTY?

The project officially launches today during the UN General Assembly in New York at 6.30 EDT. There will be keynote speeches from the UN Deputy Secretary General, Mr Jan Eliasson, and HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.

The Early Years: An Irresistible Investment Opportunity Session: 

Starting children on the right path has one of the highest returns of any social investment, with early childhood development programs returning as much as $18 for every dollar invested. High quality early childhood education programs develop the foundation for critical workforce skills that boost economic growth and reduce long-term social costs.

Watch the Webcast:

Today the program of the Bernard van Leer Foundation to ensure safe and healthy cities for young children in India is being recognized at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.

We have committed to develop child friendly, safe, and healthy neighborhoods in four mid-sized Indian cities that have been targeted by the federal government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM). With one in eight urban-dwelling Indian children under age six living in a slum and over seven million young children living in urban poverty in India, it is more important than ever to identify solutions that allow young urban poor children in India to grow up safe and healthy, in a better physical environment.

By partnering with the public sector and local NGOs, the Bernard van Leer Foundation is raising awareness of the needs ofyoung urban children and building a model of health urban development that can be employed across India.

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 18 September 2012

After the summer lull, there is always a flurry of September activity. This year is no different, as we welcome exciting developments from around the world.

Starting here at home in The Netherlands, our local partner Sportbank held a sports day to mark the opening of the parliament on the Binnenhof, the government square in front of the Hall of Knights. Football players and Olympic champions left the politicians who participated in no doubt about how critical sport is to young children’s development. Read more

BvLF is supporting a European conference on parenting support in Amsterdam on October 10-12. Think Parents! will feature round tables on policy, research and practice, renowned keynote speakers, field visits, workshops and presentations, and is organised in partnership with the Netherlands Youth Institute, the University of Amsterdam, the Council of Europe, Eurochild and other organisations. See the pdf for further details, including how to register.

Kindermishandeling speelt zich af in het verborgene, er wordt er in de zorg nog weinig met mishandelde kinderen zelf gepraat. Op initiatief van Bernard van Leer Foundation en Augeo Foundation klinkt de stem van deze kinderen in de Kindertroonrede (zie bijlage). Deze Kindertroonrede wordt op Prinsjesdag 18 September op naar alle Kamerleden gestuurd die jeugdzorg in hun portefeuille hebben. De inhoud van de Kindertroonrede is gebaseerd op de spaarzame onderzoeken waarin mishandelde kinderen naar hun mening is gevraagd, zoals de

De Bernard van Leer Foundation en Augeo Foundation maken zich sterk om kindermishandeling uit het leven van kinderen te bannen en willen een doorbraak bereiken op gebeid van preventie en aanpak van kindermishandeling.

Meer troonredes over kindermishandeling en huiselijk geweld lees je in het online vakblad voor mensen die met kinderen en ouders werken Tijdschrift Kindermishandeling http://tkmnieuws.nl/de-kindertroonrede/

The 8th publication in the Early Childhood In Focus series, published by BvLF and the UK's Open University, looks at the topic of Healthy Environments. It includes discussions of the challenges and opportunities bringing up children in urban areas, and the design of "child-friendly spaces". Early Childhood In Focus offers advocates a clear and accessible summary of the current state of knowledge and research. Download the pdf, read on issuu.com or order a free printed copy today.

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 6 September 2012

It's election time in the Netherlands. On September 12th the Dutch will cast their votes with the euro crisis at the top of their minds. However daycare has also surfaced as one of the main topics in the political debates. All parties, in part through talks with my team, have expressed their desire to reverse the budget cuts planned for 2013 which would make quality daycare a luxury even fewer parents can afford. While we welcome the change of heart, reversing budget cuts is not enough. It is only the first step in a complete overhaul of the child care system that is necessary to allow all young children in the Netherlands to develop to their full potential. Read more

Dilip Tirkey, hockey star and member of India's upper house of parliament, has today voiced his support for preschool and primary education being delivered in tribal languages in tribal areas of the state of Odisha (see coverage in The Times of India).

This follows a major step forward last month when the Odisha government issued a directive in support of the policy, as advocated by the state-level tribal organisation Odisha Adivashi Mancha. Tribal children face difficulty in adjusting to school when instruction is not in the langauge they speak at home, making it harder for them to get an education.

Through its local partner NGO PREM, the Bernard van Leer Foundation has been a long time supporter of this campaign and has demonstrated the efficacy of mother tongue-based early education by funding 900 centres in the state, reaching nearly 15,000 tribal childrem. The focus now shifts to ensuring the state government directive is fully implemented, and pressing for a national law enshrining all Indian children's right to an education in their mother tongue.

On 27 and 28 August an international meeting on violence against children was held in Lima with the title "Expert Consultation on Prevention and Response to Violence Against Girls and Young Children", organized by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, SRSG On Violence Against Children in the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Women and Vulnerable Populations in Peru, the Global Movement for Children of Latin America and the Caribbean and Salgalú. The meeting, attended by experts from countries including the US, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, has been looking at how to respond to and prevent violence against young children

The Bernard van Leer Foundation is recruiting an administrator to assist our communications department with tasks including event logistics and social media outreach. Applicants must be fluent in Dutch and English. The deadline for applications is August 20th. For more details, including how to apply, download the pdf.

When young boys witness domestic violence, how does it impact them? New research sponsored by BvLF shows that the effects are profound and long lasting. Those boys are more likely to grow into men who have problems with self-esteem and depression, who beat their own partners and children, and who are violent in their communities.

For more, download the report pdf - Bridges to Adulthood Understanding the Lifelong Influence of Men's Childhood Experiences of Violence. The research is based on data from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) in six countries (Brazil, Chile, Croatia, India, Mexico, and Rwanda) and published by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW).

On July 8, the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s partner organisation INFANT organised the “biggest hug in the world” in Lima, Peru. Hundreds of children, adolescents and adults joined in a public display of affection to raise awareness of the issue of violence and humiliating physical punishment suffered by Peru’s children and adolescents, and to promote non-violent parenting.

You can express your support via the camapign's Facebook page, watch associated videos on INFANT’s blog and YouTube channel, and read the Peruvian news agency Andina's report on the July 8 event.

The event was supported by a range of private, public and civil society organisations including Save The Children Peru, organisations of children and adolescents in Lima, the city's municipal authorities and Peru's Defensor del Pueblo (Public Ombudsman) Eduardo Vega Luna.

The latest edition of Early Childhood Matters explores the links between the living conditions that children grow up in and their health and development. It includes articles on air pollution, accidents, nature and child-friendly cities, and contributions from four continents. You can download the pdf, read on issuu.com or order a free printed copy. 

Children created a variety of ringtones during the "Music Media Experience" at our opening.  If you made a ringtone, you can download it.  Click on the photo to the ringtone site. 

 

We are happy that you will be joining us for the new media music experience on the 15th of June 2012.

Zaterdag 16 juni & zondag 17 juni | 13.00 tot 16.00 uur |
Kantoor Bernard van Leer Foundation | Lange Houtstraat 2

This Friday June 1st, the European Network for Children of Imprisoned Parents (EUROCHIPS) are launching their 3rd annual European Prisoners' Children Week (1 – 8 June) to raise awareness about this vulnerable group of children and their specific set of circumstances.

This year, the campaign is entitled Not my Crime, Still my Sentence; which was inspired by the various experiences of which these children are vulnerable, including stigma, bullying, social isolation, developmental (as well as financial hardships), and separation anxiety. Read more...

A film portraying the long term impact of child abuse is breaking through taboos.  

People who grew up with abuse and neglect find it difficult or impossible to process their feelings and they often experience life as a fight. The lack of safety, security and love brings about a long search for processing, recognition and acceptance.

In the film Bas van Hout, a Dutch crime reporter, and Hameeda Lakho, the Pakistan born author of 'Hitting Home' and founding member of 'Stichting Geheim Geweld', talk about their traumatic experiences and the long impact of child abuse. Read more...

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 16 May 2012

Investing in young children is not rocket science. It’s actually neuroscience, with a little bit of molecular biology and genomics thrown in for good measure.

There is a revolution occurring today in neuroscience. What we are learning about children’s development is nothing short of a new paradigm. Everything you have always wanted to know about brain development and early childhood has been brought together in the latest Early Childhood in Focus #7.

Brain research is not telling us what to do with our kids. It is helping us understand why we do certain things with our babies and toddlers and what impact it has on their development. Read more

The Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF) at the World Bank has opened the first call for proposals. This multi-donor trust fund, supported by DFID and administered by the World Bank's Human Development Network, will finance research evaluating the impact of programs to alleviate poverty and improve people’s lives. The knowledge generated will provide evidence for designing more effective policies and programs for improving human development outcomes, with a particular focus on programs that can be expanded in low-income countries. One of the research clusters is focused on Early Childhood Nutrition, Health and Development. Applications should be submitted by 8 a.m. (EST) on June 4, 2012. Please visit the website http://go.worldbank.org/YM02GKKFJ0 for more information.

‘Developing Brains’ is the latest edition of Early Childhood In Focus, a series of publications produced by the Child and Youth Studies Group at The Open University with the support of the Bernard van Leer Foundation. It covers key findings from neuroscience on the development of children’s brains and the effects of early experiences. The Early Childhood In Focus series provides accessible and clear reviews of the best and most recent available research, offering clear messages on core policy topics and questions. Download the pdf, read on issuu.com or order a free printed copy today.

An independent report on the extent to which the Netherlands is meeting its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Kinderrechten in Nederland 2008-2012 (Children's Rights in The Netherlands) was published today. A collaboration of over 80 organisations, and with support from the Bernard van Leer Foundation among others, the report focuses on how vulnerable groups of children are bearing the brunt of government austerity measures. Read more (in Dutch) on the website of Defence for Children - Netherlands.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation's Annual Report 2011 is now available. The report details our grantmaking activities and financial situation for the past year. It includes programme overviews per country and at global level, reports on communications activities, contributions from the chair of the board of trustees and the executive director, and an executive summary in Spanish.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation was proud to receive the Slinger award 2011 for our Corporate Social Responsibility in our hometown The Hague, along with PwC. We received the reward for donating computers and other equipment from our former office to community organisations in The Hague. Rutger, Manager Support Services, accepted the award (a white Stork, the symbol of the Hague) on our behalf . http://www.hofnet.nl/index.php?id=1079

Are you a student at a Dutch institution looking to increase your experience, and motivated to support an international team that is working to improve the lives and opportunities of children around the world? Then we are looking for you. BvLF is recruiting three interns to work 24 hours a week for six months on the following areas: Dutch events and media; Research reporting; and Online communications. Deadline for application is 14th April.

On March 22-23, BvLF will hold a two-day conference on mother tongue-based early childhood education for tribal children in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Invest in Young Children: A National Convention on Mother Tongue Based Early Childhood Education will bring together experts, practitioners, policy makers, grassroots activists and development partners to debate the issues.

On 5 April 2011, the European Commission invited all member states to present a strategy for Roma inclusion, as part of the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020. On 16 June 2011, the Netherlands government published its policy on integration, social cohesion and citizenship. In line with the basic principle of this policy, the Netherlands government's Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations submitted a document to EC entitled "Policy measures in the Netherlands for the social inclusion of Roma". This document shares BvLF's response.

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 6 March 2012

Mentioning business and children in one sentence makes some people uncomfortable. However, we believe that the private sector has an important role to play in making life better for kids. That’s why last week I was in Uganda, to give an award for the business that is doing the most to improve opportunities for young children.

Organised in partnership with Uganda’s Private Sector Foundation, the Excellence in Investing in Young Children Awards attracted 58 entries, plenty of attention and over 300 attendees at the gala awards presentation. Uganda’s 10.8 million under-8s certainly need all the visibility they can get; almost 40% of the country’s young children suffer from malnutrition and stunting.

What can Uganda’s businesses do for these kids? Three things. Read more

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 17 February 2012

January is a month of reflection and planning, in which we evaluate progress made and formulate concrete outcomes for the coming year in the context of longer term programs to change the lives of young children. To give you an impression of our focus on changing the lives of children in 2012, below we present concrete outcomes we will be working to see this year. In January 2013 I will be able to share with you if we were successful and what made the difference, and if we were not successful what were the challenges. Read more

Equality, in cooperation with the Roma Education Fund, carried out research in the United Kingdom to find out what impact mainstream schooling had on Roma children who had previously been streamed into special or de facto segregated schools.

The findings of this pilot research, From Segregation to Inclusion, show that Roma pupils in the United Kingdom quickly catch up with their non-Roma peers to gain an attainment level comparable with average, a huge achievement in light of the obstacles these children have faced in their home countries in Central Europe.

The second camera of the Brazilian Federation has approved a law against the use of physical and psychological punishment against children.  The Minister of Human Rights, Ms. Maria de Rosário Nunes recognize the achievement of the civil society and the parliamentarians who were involved.

Our Partners in Brazil, The Parliamentary Front for Early Childhood (guided by Vital Didonet –OMEP), the RNPI and other allies were directly involved in advocating for this law.  We co-funded a National Plan for Early Childhood (Under Promundo and OMEP, before, and now with AVANTE) that RNPI launched early this year and that was an important contribution to this achievement.

Brazil is now the 4th country in the Americas banning psychological and physical punishment against children.  Will Peru be next?

Today the Verwey Jonker Institute  published a special edition of the "Kids Count" report on child abuse in the Netherlands, Kinderen In Tel over Kindermishandeling (link in Dutch), based on data from Child Abuse Advice and Reporting Centres from 2003 to 2009. The report shows there are significant disparities in reported cases of abuse between municipalities, largely because each municipality has its own policy on how professionals such as the police or hospital workers should handle suspected cases of abuse. The report also indicates that most municipalities do not yet provide specialised care for victims of child abuse.

The report was made with support of the Bernard van Leer Foundation and Stichting Kinderpostzegels.

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 30 November 2011

In 1969 Joan Gantz Cooney asked the question, ‘How can emerging media help children learn?’ The answer was Sesame Street and Joan is commonly referred to as “Sesame Street’s Mother.” History is repeating itself. Today, we are wondering the same thing. This time not about television but apps, ipads, smart phones and other devises which are far more interactive and attractive, even addictive, to young children.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation recently invited Michael H. Levine to help us address this question. Dr. Levine at the Joan Ganz Cooney centre at Sesame Workshop is busy trying to help parents to navigate the new media space. Parents require navigation, children do not. Smart phones and ipads are an unintentional match made in heaven, really.

The Children's Ombudsman in The Netherlands today officially submitted a letter to the Dutch parliament pointing to statistics which show that child abuse in the Netherlands is a serious and persistent problem, and making proposals for which the Bernard van Leer Foundation and other civil society actors have been pressing. These include the formation of multidisciplinary teams of researchers and greater attention to the accumulation of risk factors which generally cause child abuse, such as poverty, unemployment and parents' mental health.

The latest edition of Early Childhood Matters, Early learning: Lessons from scaling up, is available for download (printed copies can be pre-ordered and will be despatched when available.) It looks at the question of how to scale up early learning provision without sacrificing quality.

Articles consider lessons that can be learned from national-level experiences in South Africa, Kenya, the US, the UK, Macedonia, Cuba, Chile and Peru, as well as examining lessons at an organisational level with input from Reggio Emilia in the US, India's SEWA, the Caribbean's FDCC, ISSA in Central/Eastern Europe, and the OECD.

Further articles discuss what "quality" means in the context of early education services, outline the World Bank's new SABER-ECD tool to collect evidence on what works, and ask how interactive technology can help to scale up early learning.

The US secretaries of health and education wrote to the New York Times on October 30th to reaffirm the Obama administration's commitment to early childhood education, in response to criticism in an op-ed by Nicholas D Kristof on 20th October.

As part of our involvement with the Cinekid film festival, BvLF invited Michael Levine of Sesame Workshop (the organisation behind the TV show Sesame Street) to The Netherlands to talk on the subject of whether interactive touchscreen technology such as smartphones and iPads can aid children's development. The Dutch newspaper De Pers published an interview with Michael Levine on October 20th; BvLF has translated it into English.

Professor Dr. Gabriel Motzkin from Jerusalem will lecture on Jewish Philanthropy and Jewish Identity: The Van Leer Family and Israel on Tuesday November 8th at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. Anyone interested in attending is invited to email Evenementen@jhm.nl. Admission is €5 including coffee. Doors open at 19.30 and the program will start at 20.00.

Last week, the Cinekid film festival awards were presented in Amsterdam; the Bernard van Leer Foundation Best International Film (Audience Award) went to Will, directed by Ellen Perry.

On October 12th our executive director Lisa Jordan was present at the opening of the 25th Cinekid film festival, the international festival for media and young children aged 4 to 12. Princess Maxima and Prince Willem Alexander of the Netherlands were also present.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation asked Lege Fles productions  to create a short film called Living in Media for the opening ceremony, in which young kids talk about their experience with media. Two elementary schools in the Netherlands, Bos & Vaart in Haarlem and the Mgr. Bekkerschool in Amsterdam, participated in the video, which you can watch below.

We are pleased to pass on a call for proposals from the UBS Optimus Foundation for proposals on projects that link the education and health sectors to improve outcomes for young children. See details of the call in this pdf and visit the foundation's website for further information on how to apply.

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 3 October 2011

Back to school time is one of the most stressful times for parents. Organising care for children can be challenging and in a place like the Netherlands it is more challenging than it should be. In The Hague, where I live, only two child care centres are linked with my children’s school and can pick them up for after-school care. Despite having hiked their fees, both have long waiting lists. That is not surprising. Parents who work full time cannot realistically run from the office to pick up their children at 3:00 every day so we will take what we can get. The situation for working parents with younger children looking for affordable quality childcare is comparable. It’s a challenge even if you have the income to pay costs that are on the rise due to a recent change in legislation by the Dutch government. Read more

New research supported by the Bernard van Leer Foundation and published in The Lancet reveals that increasing investment in early childhood development programmes is a highly cost-effective strategy that could provide considerable returns, with the potential to promote long-term growth and significantly reduce inequalities in low and middle income countries.

BvLF is also supporting an event to discuss the research, to be hosted by the World Bank on Monday 26th September from 12.30 to 14.00 EST. Further details of the event are on the Bank's website here, and the discussion will be webcasted here. To read the text of The Lancet's press release describing the new research, with links to abstracts, click here.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation is pleased to be supporting an upcoming conference on Growing SMEs Latin America, to be held in Bogotá, Colombia, on September 22-23. This conference aims to activate local resources to contribute to strengthening SMEs in emerging markets in ways that are both profitable and socially and environmentally sustainable. Organisers are the BiD Network, the School of Management of the Universidad de los Andes, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, New Ventures, and Creame.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation is pleased to announce our sponsorship of the Cinekid 25th International Film Festival for children aged 4-12, to be held in Amsterdam from October 12-21.

We have invited Michael H. Levine of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center - set up by the makers of Sesame Street to develop digital learning materials - to deliver a keynote speech and participate in an expert meeting on new media on October 18/19th. The expert meeting will advise BvLF on how to proceed with a planned further collaboration with the Cinekid Foundation to develop high quality media and new media content aimed at children.

Lisa Jordan, Executive Director of BvLF, said: "Today's reality is that young children live in a media world. If media is high quality, it presents positive development opportunities. It has the potential to reach young children wherever they live and whatever language they speak. Media can help children to express themselves, and help adults to understand children better. It can bring parents and children together by giving them the opportunity to share new experiences, such as the Cinekid festival."

If you are interested in participating in the expert meeting, please contact BvLF's Communications Director, Leontien Peeters. We are especially interested in the potential of interactive media to promote early learning, especially in remote areas which lack centre-based early learning facilities.

BvLF is funding a conference in Ankara on September 20-21 on Being children in seasonal migration: Living conditions of children aged 0-6. See further details of the conference (pdf) and the promotional youtube video.

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The Douglas B. Marshall, Jr. Family Foundation, which works on education and research, is now accepting proposals for a new round of grantmaking. Particular interests are project work in education that is evidence-based, cost-effective and scalable in the long term, or research that contributes to the evidence base on what works to improve educational outcomes. Organizations and projects focused in developing countries are strongly encouraged to apply. The deadline for draft applications is September 23rd, and further details can be found here.

The BvLF-funded Infobarómetro de la Primera Infancia, run by partner Salgalú, was officially presented at an event last Friday. The Infobarómetro collates data on early childhood in Peru to inform policymaking and advocacy. Listen to the coverage of the event on Radio Programas del Perú (RPP) here (in Spanish).

Non-profit organizations, universities and research institutes are invited to submit proposals for research into the effectiveness of programmes to prevent violence against children in low-income settings. Read the press release and the full call for proposals on the website of the Children and Violence Evaluation Challenge Fund, an initiative partly funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation.

Following on from last week's broadcast of the first episode, BBC World News this weekend broadcasts the second part of the BvLF-funded "In the Mayor's Footsteps". Transmission times (all GMT) are: Saturday August 13th 00:30, 07:30 and 19:30; Sunday August 14th 12:30. Read more in our press release and watch a clip from the programme below.

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Last weekend BBC World News broadcast a BvLF-funded programme made by TVE, In the Mayor’s Footsteps, about the effects of stress and violence in young children's lives. See brief extracts from the programme below:

According to László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, the longstanding problem of discrimination against and social exclusion of Roma is getting worse. The European Roma Information Office's latest weekly e-newsletter shares the Commissioner's responses on why the welfare of the Roma population “is a European challenge and requires a European response”.

Through our EU-wide programme the Bernard van Leer Foundation collaborates with other European foundations in the Forum for Roma Inclusion, with the aim of helping Roma children to break the cycle of exclusion; clearly, much work remains to be done.