Child Abuse: Germany is Shocked into Hosting a Childcare Summit Next Week

An emergency Childcare Summit is being held in Berlin next week in a bid to deal with their culture of deference and to address the evergrowing numbers of child deaths, abuse and neglect. This Summit should have been held years ago and unfortunately, it has come four years too late for little baby Celine.

Just two week the politicians, representatives of childcare organizations and anyone who could jump onto the bandwagon, did just that. "Too little, too late!".
This malee to speak to the press came about when police in the city of Paulen entered an apartment of a woman they call Susan F. They found the bodies of three newborn baby girls and when they asked the Mother to explain her answer was;
"They just died on their own so I disposed of them". " None of the neibours nor Susan F's boyfriend admitted to knowing anything about the pregnancies nor the death of the newborn little sisters.

The three tiny little sisters were born as follows, Celine was forn in 2003 and her little frozen body was found in the family freezer with a tiny woollen hat on her head. Her two sisters, who have no names, were born in 2004 and 2005. This story hit the headlines however was knocked from it's perch within a few hours when more news of a schizophernic Mother in Northern Germany tranquilized and smothered her five young boys. No wonder the Politicians were out in force trying to point the finger at anyone but themselves.

The decentralized, state-by-state approach to childcare in Germany is just not working. In some states, when a child is born, the Hospital does not have to register the birth and the child only comes into the light of the Government when first attending school. In the western state of Saarland a new system of mandetory health check was introduced. If a child did not attend school or for appointments, a social worker calls to the home to check up and ascertain if everything is in order. Other states are trying to set-up a similar method however the Federal Government in Berlin rejected the calls for uniform guidelines.

The German Government have had plenty of time to organize and investigate their childcare methods. Only last year a woman was sent to prison after admitting "giving birth to nine babies, leaving them to die and then putting their tiny little bodies into plant pots out onto her balcony". If this was not a major warning bell then all the government had to was was to peruse a year-long series of child abuse cases, neglect and child deaths. Unfortunately, in Germany, child welfare matters is a matter for Lander; Too late for all of those lost souls and for Celine.

Child welfare in Germany is decentralized and each state has it's own approach on how to manage this issue. The Federal Government of Berlin who rejected calls for a uniformity has only to look on its own doorstep as they have the honor of being the Child Neglect Capital of Germany. Sometimes, they say you "can not see what is going on under your own nose". Berlin has ten times as many abuse cases e.g.; 14 per 100,000 people. Only within the last year there have been over 1,600 cases of documented abuse, neglect and reports of hungry children being sent to school or living in terrible conditions. Something is wrong somewhere!

I have to show both sides of this situation and in Berlin, a special Child Abuse Commission was set up and a poster campaign, which was very graphic, featured; a little grave with a tiny wood cross and a baby's bottle and read - "BORN-TORTURED-DIED." Hard hitting however, not hard hitting enough. Despite these posters the grim statistics continue to rise.

I hope that this emergency child summit called for next week will remember even one of these poor tots who died at the hands of their own parents. I selected little Celine's case to bring the importance of their decisions at this meeting. Although it is four years too late for Celine, perhaps this summit can help children in the future to be protected by their own Government from tragic deaths, injury or pure neglect.