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Criticized for Representing Homes and HVB Adoption – SVT: “The Responsibility of Adults to Help Children and Give Them Tools”
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This year’s “Miracle” Christmas calendar is accused of being misleading when it comes to orphanages, HVB homes and adoptions.
“Completely unacceptable to SVT and deeply offensive to those affected,” writes one of the complainants to the Board of Review.
– I am very sorry if it is the children who have problems in their daily life because of this, says Johanna Gårdare, director of SVT Children.
SVT’s “Mirakel” Christmas calendar has been reported to the Board of Review and is criticized by adoptive parents for how it portrays orphanages, HVB homes, and adoptions.
“This year’s Christmas calendar addresses two sensitive topics. HVB home and adoption. Unfortunately, both are completely misrepresented and paint a completely wrong, offensive, and damaging picture of what an HVB house is and how adoptions are carried out in Sweden. The result is that many children now have to endure difficult questions in school, it is not okay, “writes a complainant to the Board of Review.
“Very misleading”
“Although it is a fairy tale, the present is portrayed in a way that can be detrimental to many children and young people in our country. The way that HVB homes and adoption are shown to be and are made is very misleading and is presented in a negative way and not at all with the best interests of the child in mind, ”another whistleblower writes.
In “Mirakel”, the orphan Mira lives in an orphanage waiting to be adopted. But in the series, the orphanage is incorrectly called an HVB home, which is supportive housing for, among other things, children and youth who come from families with substance abuse problems or for unaccompanied refugee children.
Photo: ULRIKA MALM / SVT
Mira (Sarah Rhodin) on the left and Rakel (Bibi Lenhoff) are the main characters in SVT’s “Mirakel” Christmas calendar.
The reports received by the Review Board also criticize how it is presented that prospective adoptive parents can visit orphaned children to choose which child they would like to adopt. The series also shows how prospective adoptive parents leave home in a slippery car after not wanting to adopt the lead role of Mira.
– Children are at risk of receiving big questions that are difficult to handle. Questions like: How did they choose you? Were you at HVB’s? Are your real parents alive? Mona Berglund of the Barnens Friends adoption association tells SVT Nyheter.
Two inscriptions
Adoptivföräldern Conny Norén He has also reacted on the Christmas calendar:
– First of all, HVB homes and adoptions don’t really go hand in hand. HVB homes are one thing and adoptions are another. I and others have reacted to the fact that there was some kind of feeling that here you have to stretch out, be correct and presentable, otherwise parents won’t want one, he tells SVT News.
The Board of Review has received two reports against “Mirakel” that concern exactly how HVB homes and adoptions are described.
“Totally unacceptable by SVT and deeply offensive to those affected,” wrote one of the complainants.
The other author believes that children and young people can be harassed and offended as a consequence of the content of the Christmas calendar:
“It also raises difficult existential questions and thoughts in these children that they may have a hard time dealing with in front of their peers, and sadly in front of reckless adults as well. This year’s Christmas calendar makes this situation even more obvious, the whistleblower writes, urging SVT to include a warning at the beginning of each episode.
SVT: “You can’t wrap children in cotton”
According to Johanna Gårdare, head of SVT Children and responsible for the Christmas calendar, SVT has prepared for the reactions.
– I fully understand that it is a sensitive thing and a fragile part of their lives, those who are in this situation. At the same time, I think that children and adults, perhaps especially children, understand that this is fiction. There are many things on a Christmas calendar or drama series that do not correspond to reality.
She regrets that any child felt bad about the content of the calendar.
– I am very sorry if it is about children who have problems in their daily life because of this, who have encountered the reactions of their friends and have had to answer strange questions. I understand what has happened. But in general, I think it is also the responsibility of adults to help children and give them tools. Because all children have different sensitive things in their lives that make them face different reactions and have to deal with problematic and difficult situations. We do not help our children by wrapping them in cotton and protecting them from all difficulties. We can’t control what questions they will face, just equip them with answers. This is how life works, says Johanna Gårdare.
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