FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Christopher Yavelow
+31-650-853-863
avelow.com
http://www.StolenChildren.net
CHILDREN HELPING CHILDREN - BRING THE CHILDREN HOME
Maryland-- July 4, 2000-- Children helping children is the focus of a campaign launched today by The Stolen Children Network. The web sites, www.ChildrenHelpingChildren.com and www.BringTheChildrenHome.com, allow children to write a letter to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands asking her to send two US children back home to America, specifically, Celina and Stephanie Yavelow, two native-born American teenagers who had spent more than half their lives in the United States when their Swiss mother abducted them to the Netherlands on October 21, 1999, in defiance of a Maryland court order.
Visitors first read a brief story of how a loophole in "the Hague Convention let their mom have a SWAT team pick them up, just like the one that picked up Elian Gonzales." The difference is that Celina and Stephanie were shouting "We are American citizens! We want to stay in America!" the whole time.
Next, there is a simple form where children, or anyone for that matter, can exercise "Kid's Power" and write their letter to the queen and press a button to send it. If one doesn't have time to write, pressing the button will submit an appropriate form letter. Grieving father Christopher Yavelow hopes to deliver one million letters to the queen of Holland to bring his children home.
There is a check box to have a copy of the letter automatically sent to one's representative in congress with a note attached stating: "I just sent this letter to the Queen of The Netherlands! Why did you let such a terrible treaty be signed by the United States! Next time why don't you ask some American kids if they mind being sent out of their home country. Better yet, how about working to change that treaty so this can't happen! You know, we're going to grow up and vote too and we are going to remember this!"
The site also urges children to "Please tell your mom and dad not to buy anything from Holland until both Celina and Stephanie Yavelow are back home in America. The big Dutch companies are Shell Oil, Philips, Unilever, Heineken, KLM, and Gouda cheese." Clicking on that note brings up a complete list with the tip "Print this list to carry around with you when you shop."
The Stolen Children Network hopes their efforts will spur a rewrite of the Hague Convention. Although none of the other 50 nations who signed the treaty would ever use it against it's own citizens, the United States routinely allows foreign countries to use the document as a powerful tool in kidnapping American children. The Children Helping Children web site explains "if you visit a foreign country for more than 6 months, and you are a kid or teenager, then you can't come back home to America if one of your parents wants to keep you in that other country and your other parent wants to come home."
Yavelow comments: "The Hague treaty mandates that a child loses all rights to live in his or her home country if that child has spent more than 6 months in a foreign country. It can happen when a family travels overseas because of a temporary business transfer, a term in the military, or an educational fellowship, and one spouse wants to stay abroad. This is not what the people who wrote the treaty intended! It's not a custody issue either, it's an issue of human rights!"
This is just the first of many plans of the Stolen Children Network to encourage children to exercise their political power like they can at the ChildrenHelpingChildren web site and the BringTheChildrenHome web site.
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For more information:
Children Helping Children:
http://www.ChildrenHelpingChildren.com
Bring the Children Home:
http://www.BringTheChildrenHome.com
Stolen Children Network:
http://www.StolenChildren.net
Yavelow Family Web-site:
http://www.yavelow.com
YAV's Business Web-site:
http://www.yav.com