Aagje Ieven is Secretary General at Missing Children Europe www.missingchildreneurope.eu , where sheis responsible for the strategic development and day-to-day management of the organization.Aagje has a background in Health (Bachelor, Leuven 1998) and Political Philosophy (Master, Leuven, and Nijmegen, 2002). She has close to twenty years of experience in research and policy analysis on human rights in Europe and has worked for a number of EU civil society organisations advocating for the rights and wellbeing of children and their families. She coordinated a campaign for the rights of children in vulnerable situations and managed a European membership network supporting families affected by mental health issues. At Missing Children Europe she established a research and training programme on runaways, the largest category of missing children, and led the advocacy on the new EU Child Rights
Currently Secretary General at Missing Children Europe, Aagje heads the European umbrella organisation for ngo’s working on the issue of missing children. They strive to protect and empower children to prevent them from going missing, and they do this by supporting the professionals in our network with research, training, advocacy and awareness raising. They focus on runaways, children abducted by a parent, and unaccompanied migrant children. They coordinate the network of 116000 missing child hotlines which children and families can call when a child is (at risk of going) missing. They also run a network of cross border family mediators that international families which are separating can contact for support.
At missing children, Aagje is responsible for day-to-day management of the organization and setting out the strategic lines together with the Board.
Her educational background is in Health (Bachelor, Leuven 1998) and Political Philosophy (Master, Leuven, and Nijmegen, 2002). She spend 6 years doing research on human rights in Europe at the University of Leuven and as a Fulbright scholar at Columbia University in New York. After that experience in New York, she decided to embark on a career in EU civil society and led a research project on child health inequalities at EuroHealthNet. Since then she has worked for a number of civil society organisations advocating for the rights and wellbeing of children and their families. At Eurochild, she coordinated a campaign to advocate for deinstitutionalisation and family based care for children. For 2 years, she was SecGen at EUFAMI, another European membership network supporting families caring for family members with severe mental health issues.
Aagje joined Missing Children Europe almost three years ago, and have since then established their research and training programme on runaways, called RADAR, have established child participation in the organisation, have led our advocacy on the new EU Child Rights Strategy, and is currently working on their new four year strategy 2022-2025.
Research conducted as part of the INCLUDE project shows that overlooking children in international abduction cases leads to feelings of helplessness and anxiety.They work with professionals who assist missing children, children at risk of going missing and their families. MCE supports them to better protect and empower children through research, training, advocacy, and awareness, facilitating exchange and cross-border cooperation. They coordinate the network of 116000 missing children hotlines, and the Cross-Border Family Mediators network. In all of these ways it contributes to more effective, holistic and integrated child protection systems across Europe.
Missing Children Europe website where you will find all of our projects and annual reports: https://missingchildreneurope.eu/
International family conflict – families can find Cross Border Family Mediators here: https://crossbordermediator.eu/
Long term missing cases – NotFound application for all website owners: https://notfound.org/en
Children in Migration – Miniila application with info for unaccompanied minors: https://miniila.com/
Children in Migration – Lost in Migration conference for professionals in the field: http://lostinmigration.eu/#page-top
Children in Migration – Tiny and Apollo campaign to start a different conversation on migration: https://www.tinyandapollo.com/
Thanks as always to www.albadigitalmedia.com for technical assistance with the podcast.
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