Synopsis:
When nine-year-old Maya Kowalski was admitted to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in 2016, nothing could have prepared her or her family for what they were about to go through. As the medical team tried to understand her rare illness, they began to question the basic truths that bound the Kowalskis together. Suddenly, Maya was in state custody despite two parents who were desperate to bring their daughter home. The story of the Kowalski family as told in their own words will change the way you look at children’s healthcare forever.

Child Protective Services in the Netherlands:
Child protective services (CPS) are meant to protect vulnerable children and help them. But in The Netherlands for already over a decade reports indicate that the CPS-system is failing; in NL more than 3000 children are removed from their family each year, the highest number in the world (per capita).
Children are e.g. locked up in “Closed CPS”, including Jason Bhugwandass (26) himself, who co-authored the latest report (March 2024) about the incidents, trauma etc.

The United Nations observes the International Day of Families on May 15th and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights its stated that a family is the fundamental group unit of society and that it should be protected from arbitrary interference. Then why, often the most vulnerable in society like the victims of the “Toeslagenaffaire“, suffer the most from the intrusion in their family life and potential violation of their human rights?