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28 May 2016
Video interview and English text
Present: Elisabeth Augdahl and Marianne Haslev Skånland
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Norwegian Barnevernet and thick bread slices
The video:
Barnevernet og tykke brødskiver
Norwegian speech, English text
Norwegian Barnevernet and thick bread slices
Marianne Haslev Skånland interviews Elisabeth Augdahl
Evgeni Dyakonov on youtube, 28 May 2016
Translation of the interview:
MHS:
There is a lot of criticism of Norwegian child protection. People in other countries have shown interest for the criteria which Barnevernet uses for depriving children of their parents.
On the 16th April 2016 there were large protest demonstrations in many places around the world. On 21 April, there was a tv program which had a panel discussing Norwegian Barnevern.
The program host Ingunn Solheim opened with a question for Mari Trommald.
Mari Trommald is the leader of The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir), the Government's unit with top responsibility for Barnevernet.
Program host Solheim says:
And Mari Trommald, the allegation that: "if you cut too thick bread slices or cook the omelet wrong and not according to nutritional guidance, then your children can be removed in Norway."
What can you answer to something like that?
Trommald answers:
Concretely to that, there is no doubt that cutting the bread slices too thick or too narrow or frying the omelet wrong, that gives no basis for taking into care. And I think in a way everybody in this panel will agree with that.
And she continues:
There is no doubt that the debate we see abroad now is trying for Norway. Like you yourselves said too. It has become top level international politics, something which people engage in, from prime minister and all the foreign service in Norway. It has set its stamp on a lot of the big discussions abroad too.
And what is important to bring across here, is that very many of the allegations which come, they are of just the type you said: too thin bread slices, or other - shall we say - faulty information about facts, having no basis in Norwegian reality.
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MHS:
I am having a conversation with Elisabeth Augdahl. Hello, thank you for coming!
Which year was it that the child protection case about your two children started?
EA:
In 1990.
MHS:
And we can tell people that in this case there was an accusation about too thick bread slices, wasn't there?
EA:
Yes.
MHS:
How did it come up?
EA:
It was stated in the report of the kindergarten which was used in the child protection case, it followed the case all through.
MHS:
OK.
A rhetorical question:
Is proficiency as housewife decisive for the care of children? Whether parents should be allowed to keep their children with them, do you think?
EA:
Apparently so.
MHS:
So it is not really correct, then, what Mari Trommald claims, that this type of allegation is not used in Barnevern cases, and is without any root in Norwegian reality.
EA:
It is possible that Trommald is without root in Norwegian reality.
What happened in my case was that they gathered a lot of such arguments, and made it part of the documentary basis for a decision.
MHS:
Can you recall whether these statements were presented in court, or were they found in the case documents, or both?
EA:
They were in the documents. They were not mentioned specifically in the court in oral presentation, but were made part of the case right from the start.
MHS:
Would the family's lawyer at that time remember it still?
EA:
Yes. That statement from the kindergarten was widely known.
MHS:
So there is no question of it being lies or fantasies?
EA:
No.
MHS:
And the children were taken by Barnevernet?
EA:
Yes.
MHS:
You know that I knew your parents.
I have a great admiration for the work they did, to support you and their grandchildren, but also for other people who were attacked by Barnevernet.
And I remember very well that they told me about "bread slices".
And about other similar accusations which may not have been from your case but from other cases. One was about someone who could not fry an omelet, and a psychologist who assessed the omelet as deficient. That was certainly one episode.
I really think there is an especially serious side to this case of yours: They concern themselves with such nonsense, while one of your daughters obviously suffered from a condition bearing on her development, and Barnevernet did not see to it that that was diagnosed.
Have I understood that correctly?
EA:
Yes, you have understood it correctly. Right from the start we could see that something was wrong with her. I sought help for it. I contacted Barnevernet, but also Nic Waal's institute, in order for something to be done regarding her delayed development. When the child protection case came up, Nic Waal [personnel from the institute] and I fought together to have her examined and diagnosed. Barnevernet refused. The child was to be left in peace. I made a long and huge effort about it, but didn't get anywhere. At long last she was given a sort of examination concluding that she had a form of autism, but nothing more happened.
When she turned 18 and was to be transferred to a flat with special facilities, and Barnevernet no longer had the charge of her, then she had to be examined properly. She herself took the initiative to have that done! And she got her diagnosis: Autism to a limited degree, and cerebral palsy.
This cerebral palsy should have been pin-pointed when she was tiny.
MHS:
It is very serious, this, that Barnevernet in part considers itself to be above medical diagnosis, in part sabotages proper medical examination. They spend time on bread slices.
EA:
Yes. I will add that in this case there was much focus on my daughter's behaviour, but they claimed that she was under-stimulated. And they had no opinion at all regarding my youngest daughter, who was just included as a kind of appendix in the case.
MHS:
That is very bad too.
This is not the only case in which Barnevernet has carried out its own sort of activity regarding medical diagnoses, or have hindered examination.
I don't know if you have heard or read about a recent case in Sogn og Fjordane county: A 12 year old girl had been taken from her parents and been placed in another district, in a foster home.
Her parents had begged Barnevernet to get her some medical help, because they believed her to suffer from something like epilepsy. They were just waved away. Then, on the morning when she would have been 13, she was found dead in her bed, in the foster home.
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Let us say thank you to Elisabeth. I am glad you came and helped us with this. It is very important to get the truth out about what Barnevernet does and says.
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