CLIENT'S CHALLENGE

When one parent or another abducts their own children and spirits them away to another country, they violate international laws. One of these is the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which oversees the prompt return of children under the age of 16 to whatever status quo child custody arrangement existed before the abduction. To ease this passage home, children who have been traumatized are sometimes entrusted to temporary caregiving nonprofit organizations that provide a safe, secure and therapeutic environment to prepare the children to resume their original lives.

One such foundation engaged Matador to secure, safeguard and protect two children under the ages of 10 who had been abducted from their father in Italy by their mother who brought them to the U.S. After a court battle lasting five years, the father regained full custody of his children. The mother had instilled traumatic beliefs in her children about their father – which made their reconnection with him and adjustment to a healthier family life a terrifying process. Such an approach required around-the-clock support, and for this, the foundation reached out to Matador for help.

MATADOR’S SOLUTION

Under the auspices of the Hague Convention, U.S. law enforcement recovered the two children and passed custody of them to Matador personnel who, at the foundation’s instructions, personally escorted them to the foundation’s therapeutic transitional center.

Matador remained with the children over a period of several months, assisting in their emotional recovery through therapies such as those involving caring for animals and ensuring that they remained secure and safe throughout the process while they prepare emotionally to be reintroduced to their father via a series of his short-term visits to see them.

IMPACT ON THE CLIENT

The therapist expressed gratitude at Matador's provision of a safe, relaxed environment where the children could heal and not run away. Under Matador's careful watch, the children relaxed and began to laugh and play again. At the end of the father’s final visit, they left with him to return home to Italy – calm, positive and at peace with their new life.