To the Kids of America (and the world),
You can help!
Grown-ups have passed a law against children’s rights. It’s called the Hague Convention. It says that 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.
Celina Yavelow (13) and Stephanie Yavelow (11) were born in the USA and spent more than half their lives here. Celina was born in Massachusetts (so was her dad) and Stephanie was born in Calilfornia. These two kids are as American as apple pie.
Their mom is Swiss and wants to live in the Netherlands (Holland), but the kids are American citizens only and wanted to move back home to America with their dad — so they did. They said that being home in America was a “dream come true!” No one in the family is Dutch!
Because they spent more than 6 months in the Netherlands, the Hague Convention let their mom have a SWAT team pick them up, just like the one that picked up Elian Gonzales. Celina and Stephanie were shouting “We are American citizens! We want to stay in America!” the whole time, but no one listened.
Now these two teenagers have been stuck back in the Netherlands for 630 days. Their father has not been able to contact them for about 21 months! Their mom won’t let anyone in America have their phone number! They aren’t allowed to see their American friends or go to church every Sunday (they are Christian). They aren’t allowed to read their email (their dad writes them every day!). They are forced to speak Dutch although English is their native language. [more bad news]
All of this against the law according to the United Nations Treaty on the Rights of the Child. [more broken laws]
We believe that the government will let them come home to America if enough kids write letters to the Queen of the Netherlands. We are hoping for at least a million letters. Celina’s and Stephanie’s dad will hand-deliver the letters to Queen Beatrix. [why it’s so urgent]
This is called “Kid-Power!
Please keep Celina and Stephanie in your prayers.
Thank you very much,
Christopher Yavelow and friends
(their dad)