From Trondheim

Greetings from the ancient capital of Norway, the place from whence Leif Eriksson set sail across the North Atlantic to find Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland nearly 400 years before Christopher Columbus “discovered" America! Within an hour of arriving in Trondheim after 16 hours travel from Kuala Lumpur via Bangkok, Copenhagen and Sandefjord, my hosts Hans Goran Eriksson and Mariana took me to the forest in search of wild mushrooms and berries. It was a beautiful sunshine day, the berries were plentiful and we found enough mushrooms for our evening meal.

Trondheim’s Oldest Children's Home now an Old People’s Home

My maternal grandparents actually emigrated from Norway to North Dakota at the start of the 20th Century. For that reason I approached this, my first visit to Norway with great anticipation. A morning spent in the State Archive introduced me to the terrific on-line genealogical search facilities now available. It came as a surprise to learn that of the many Norwegian emigrants to the New World between 1860 and 1930, nearly half returned home. Interestingly enough, the Orca whale who starred in Free Willy has also turned up in Norway after his $13 million repatriation travels from the US to Iceland. The debate now is about rescuing Willy and taking him back to Florida before winter closes in around the Norwegian fjords threatening his life!

Trondheim’s Kuammen Gaid High Support Youth Facility

The real purpose of my visit was to attend the 7th Congress of the European Scientific Association for Residential and Foster Care for Children and Adolescents. More than a hundred delegates attended from at least 15 different European countries, along with delegates from Africa, Asia, Canada, the USA and New Zealand. The conference theme “Revitalising Residential and Foster Care: New Horizons in the 21st Century “offered unique opportunities for dialogue and networking amongst practitioners and researchers whose work is critical to a comparative understanding of Child and Youth Care work. It is easy to take things for granted until invited to look at everyday issues from different points of view and from a variety of cross-cultural traditions.

Our host Jonas giving explanation to Polish and Austrian Visitors

A highlight of this EUSARF Congress was the opportunity to visit local Child and Youth Care centres. My visit, with delegates from Poland and Austria, took us to a high support unit for troubled and troublesome young people situated on the edge of a farm some 20 kilometres from Trondheim. The unit offered short stay places “3 to 6 months “for four young men and women living in well equipped single rooms, males downstairs and women upstairs. An emergency secure facility adjoined the main house. Security for these young people has been built into the staffing establishment of 22 workers who are rostered three on each morning, four during the afternoons and evenings, and three on night duty “one always awake while two sleep on the premises on call. My Austrian colleagues could hardly believe that a youth centre could have so many staff caring for a maximum of 5 difficult teenagers. They work in a 500-bed institution! Like I said, there is a lot to learn outside our own patch! The more I know, the more I know what I don’t know!