Multiple former foster children who lived in the Gelderland youth care village De Glind report being physically or mentally abused.
Some also report sexual abuse. The management of youth care in the village knew of at least some reports but rarely did anything about them, Omroep Gelderland reports based on its own research.
De Gilind is a village near Barneveld. It offers space for 120 children placed out of their parental homes to be cared for in family homes. The village is acclaimed for its approach focused on giving foster children as normal a childhood as possible within a safe, primarily Reformed village community, according to the broadcaster.
But Omroep Gelderland spoke to 40 former foster children who paint an entirely different picture. Twenty-nine of them said they experienced physical or mental abuse in a foster family in De Glind. Six also experienced sexual abuse. The broadcaster also heard several accounts of sexually transgressive behavior. Many foster children felt unsafe and ignored.
The former foster children Omroep Gelderland spoke to mostly lived in De Glind between 1984 and 2000. But the broadcaster also knows of recent complaints. Complaints to the management sometimes led to foster parents being suspended or transferred but rarely resulted in a police report. As a result, alleged perpetrators could keep working in youth- and foster care.
Omroep Gelderland reported five stories of abuse in foster families and also contacted the foster parents in each account.
In family number one, the former foster child said: “My foster sister came home late. The foster father hit her so hard that she fell over the couch and hit her head against the table. The boys he literally kicked upstairs.” The foster child said they reported this to the head office. The foster family left De Glind, but the father still works as a Youth Protector.
Foster family one told the broadcaster that they always “enjoyed working in De Glind” and always had “a good, open working relationship.” They referred the broadcaster to De Glind for further information.
De Glind suspended foster family number two after four reports of sexual abuse in the late 1990s. The management also knew about signals of physical abuse but did nothing with those, according to the broadcaster. No police reports were filed. The foster father later became a teacher and counselor at a school community.
This foster father told Omroep Gelderland: “After the allegations, an internal investigation also revealed allegations of physical abuse. I do not recognize myself in that.”
De Glind knew about several signs of sexually transgressive behavior by a third foster father. A social worker confirmed to the broadcaster that the foster father was “addressed several times about intervening too harshly.” He stayed on as a foster parent and is now a family therapist.
This foster father refused to comment substantively to the broadcaster.
In a fourth house, several former foster children talk about a reign of terror. “If you walked on tiptoe, you were still too loud. The little ones sometimes had to sit at the table for hours with their arms folded until they went to bed. Then they had apparently done something wrong.”
A former employee at this foster home confirmed the children’s story. “A five-year-old boy had pooped his pants. He had to clean it himself in soapy water at the end of a long, dark hallway. He was scared. I wasn’t allowed to help him. My shift was over. I had to walk past him to leave. Harrowing.” It was her first job. “I was powerless to change it. All I could do was leave.”
The fourth foster father called the allegations “absurd.”
In the fifth family, the foster child said the father beat him “to the point of bleeding.” Another foster child also reported physical abuse in this household. They made an official complaint about this, but the complaints committee reportedly declared it unfounded. The foster father later worked as an executive at Pluryn - the healthcare provider in De Glind.
The fifth foster father told Omroep Gelderland: “It has caused me enough damage. I don’t want to respond.”
Former foster children told Omroep Gelderland that their complaints were often not believed. Many felt like second-class citizens - biological children could go to the “own children’s school,” while foster children were consistently sent to special education, for example. Some also spoke of a community so tightly knit - you went to the same church, the same school, the same birthday parties - that they couldn’t trust anyone.
Healthcare provider Pluryn told Omroep Gelderland that it does not know what happened in the 1990s. They found no indications of abuses in the previous organizations’ archives, and an internal audit in 2019 gave no reason for further investigation. “Of course, this says nothing about what actually happened in the past,” a spokesperson said.
Pluryn said it “regrets that some former clients do not feel heard.” It can’t comment on individual cases but admitted that complaints in the past were not always handled properly. The healthcare provider pointed out that a lot has changed in family home care over the years. Now foster parents have to go through a strict selection, and at least one must have a diploma. The organization also calls the police vice squad at early signals of sexually inappropriate behavior.
