International projects

Since April 2022, Augeo Foundation is a partner in the ‘Awareness-raising and Capacity-building Toolkit for the protection of all European and Caribbean Children’ (ACT4ECC).

In this project a toolkit and online magazine are developed to increase awareness and capacity-building of professionals on Aruba and Curacao working with and for children. In this way, prevention of child maltreatment and early identification of children in need will be improved.

For each country a tailormade toolkit and magazine are developed. All content is developed in close cooperation with a local content group, representing different professional groups and organisations. The toolkit includes background information on child abuse in Aruba and Curacao, case exercises on signals, tips on how to talk to parents and children and lots of videos of local experts giving tips and sharing stories of experience.

In both countries, the protection code on child abuse - similar to the reporting code in The Netherlands - has been introduced. In Aruba, the 'Codigo di Proteccion' Act took effect in 2021. In Curacao, the implementation of the 'Kódigo di Protekshon' took effect on 1 Feb 2023.

The aim is that professionals working with children take faster and better action when they identify signs of possible child abuse and neglect. (In Curacao, this includes relational violence). The new toolkit and accompanying magazine will contribute to this.

Trainers and Supervisors di Codigo/Supervisors di Kódigo can use content of the toolkit for trainings and meetings, and professionals can also access the toolkit themselves.

The toolkits and magazines from both Aruba and Curacao are online accessible free of charge.

In Aruba, the magazine is called 'Asertivo'. Let's be assertive and empower our community. On Curacao, the magazine is called Kurashi magazine for growing up safely. Kurashi stands for courage. Kurashi for victims of child abuse and relational violence to share their stories with others. Professional courage of professionals who exhibit moral strength by actively engaging in conversations about such complex topics rather than turning a blind eye.

The ACT4ECC project is coordinated by UNICEF the Netherlands, and implemented in collaboration with the governments of Aruba and Curaçao, the University of Curaçao, Augeo Foundation and the Association of Overseas Countries and Territories. The project is co-funded by the European Union's Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme (CERV).

If you are interested in getting to know more about the process of creating a toolkit, check out the handbook 'Collaborative Capacity-Building Design Model'.

In association with

In a partnership with the Government of Sint Maarten and UNICEF The Netherlands, we work together on improving the child protection system on Sint Maarten.

Within the multi-year cooperation (2020-2024) between the Government of Sint Maarten, UNICEF The Netherlands and Trustfund of the World Bank Augeo offers technical support to the Child Protection Working Group (CPWG). The objective is to further support the Government of Sint Maarten in strengthening the education and child protection system. Each year, based on the CPWG work plan, it is determined whether and what support is needed from Augeo.

Provided technical support over the years:

Advice and support introduction Child Safety Code Sint Maarten
The government wants to introduce a "Child Safety Code". In the development and implementation process, the CPWG has a leading role. Augeo has been asked to advise and support the CPWG in the process of developing legislation and preconditions for implementation. 

Advice and support introduction Child check and Handle with Care
CPWG members were supported by Augeo in preparing and conducting stakeholder workshops In individual sessions, input was provided on the various work processes within the local context on Sint Maarten. Better cooperation between youth protection, police, (mental) health care and education was the focus of a series of workshops.

Production of 6 editions of the online Growing-up Safe magazine and 2 print editions (2020-2023) together with CPWG and UNICEF The Netherlands.
The aim of the magazine is to share knowledge, experiences and best practices among professionals working with children and the general public.

Online capacity workshops for the Child Protection Working Group.
Topics of the workshops include: Lessons learned from implementation of the reporting code in The Netherlands, Child check, Handle with Care (organizing prompt social support for children), Methods for safety planning, How to embed the voice of children as hands-on experts.

Based on these workshops, CPWG members looked at what might be interesting and useful for Sint Maarten and how this could be implemented on Sint Maarten. This was incorporated into the annual plan (2021).

Advisory report to the now established interdepartmental working group 
For this UNICEF NL and Augeo Foundation visited and interviewed 30 professionals at their work locations. Together with these stakeholders, a number of quick wins were formulated. Based on the outcome of the interviews, a multi-year plan of action was drawn up to structurally improve the system.

Transfer of production Growing up Safe magazine

In June 2023, Augeo transferred the production of the magazine to Sint Maarten. From now on, the entire magazine will be under the management of the CPWG to ensure longer-term continuity.

For an impression of the online magazine and the most recent version: https://www.growingupsafe-sxm.com/

Earlier versions of the magazine: https://growingupsafe.augeo.nl/

In the period 2019-2021, together with UNICEF Netherlands, we offered assistance to the government of Aruba and NGOs in Aruba in the development and implementation of the safety code on violence against children, called. Augeo adviced on the implementation and developed various supporting materials, including an animation (www.codigodiproteccion.com). Furthermore, Augeo delivered content for meetings organized to share knowledge on experience expertise, youth participation, implementation training and reporting code in hospitals.

Together with Erasmus Medical Center and MC Haaglanden, we performed a survey to evaluate the different policies to recognise child maltreatment in Emergency Departments (EDs) in Europe in order to define areas of improvement. It is a cooperation project with EUSEM, EuSEN and REPEM, who distributed the survey. In total 185 completed surveys, representing 148 hospitals from 29 European countries were analysed.

Together with the Erasmus Medical Centre and MC Haaglanden, we conducted a survey to evaluate the different policies for recognising child abuse in emergency departments (EDs) in Europe and to define areas for improvement.

It is a collaborative project with the European professional associations for Emergency Medicine Physicians and Nurses EUSEM, EuSEN and REPEM, who distributed the survey. A total of 185 completed surveys were analysed, representing 148 hospitals from 29 European countries. The results were published in the scientific journal PLOSONE.

In 2020, a follow-up questionnaire was developed to investigate the barriers and facilitators to toolkit implementation. Due to corona, the release of this questionnaire has been delayed , but results will soon be published.

Due to the war in Ukraine, a large group of refugee children have been stranded in the neighbouring countries and are now trying to build up their lives there / regain some of their lives there.

In collaborations with CNPAC and ERIKS, we developed our 5-part resilience module, specifically for refugee children in Poland and Romania.

We also arranged to have our popular Window of Tolerance animation to be translated into several languages.

Augeo has created an online training package for English and German speaking hospitals. A webpage has been set up to share the experiences of tackling child abuse in Dutch hospitals.

The Universitätsklinik für Kinder- und Jugendheilkunde in Vienna and the Academic Hospital in Paramaribo, among others, started training doctors and nurses in 2019.

In Suriname, the e-learning was combined with a face-to-face course that was given by Dutch doctors. The European Medical school in Germany also uses the combination of Augeo’s e-learning with a face-to-face course to train their students.

Our courses on teaching refugee children in a trauma-sensitive way are also implemented internationally. For example, the course was part of a European research program and has been translated into Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian.

Within the European Horizon 2020 project Refugees Well School - Psychosocial support for adolescent refugees and migrants in schools, the translated courses have been included within one of the interventions, the in-service teacher training (INSETT). The aim of this intervention is to increase teachers' understanding of how refugee / migration experiences can affect adolescents' psychosocial well-being and functioning when resettling in a new country. The intervention took place in Sweden, Finland and Norway and was completed. The course is already being offered more broadly to teachers.

In Germany, a partnership with the Freudenberg Foundation, two National refugee organisations (BumF and BAfF) and the German Education Union (GEW) has been set up. In this partnership, the refugee course has been translated into German, adapted to German context and has been brought to the attention of German teachers.