Our mission

Spotlight wants to put an end to organized child abuse, child trafficking and child murder.
Spotlight was founded for and by survivors of organized violence against children. The people who stand next to us also participate.
It starts with acknowledging that this exists and that it must be fought!
Victims like us who have experienced this are rarely taken seriously and heard, we want to change that!

We give children and adults a voice, where they have no words.

What do we stand for:

Spotlight speaks on behalf of adults and children who have (had) to deal with organized (sadistic) violence in childhood. In this society, many people do not believe that this exists. We are witnesses that it does exist.

We explain the following concepts:

Organized violence is violence that is organized and takes place in groups. We know it mainly from organizations such as the Mafia, ISIS or Ku Klux Klan. Less well known is that there are organizations that focus on exploiting and abusing children and are suppliers of child pornography and child prostitution that continues well into adulthood. Spotlight wants to expose these practices. We know that such groups can also be guilty of drug and arms trafficking and murder.

Sadistic violence/abuse: abuse in which perpetrators derive pleasure from frightening, confusing, torturing, and subjugating other people. Sadism underlies forms of organized sexual violence.
Ritual violence: Abuse that is repeated and consists of sexual acts, in a specific order and at a specific location. Usually carried out in a group.
Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA): organized ritual sexual violence by satanists or devil worshippers. Repeated, systematic and sadistic physical, sexual and emotional abuse of a child or group of children, by a group of adult perpetrators in the context of a cult or satanic worship.

Sadism is often a ‘human’ motive for these violent practices. What is so difficult with sadistic (child) violence is that the perpetrators are people who look normal and have a social life. Their behavior is based on a sadistic nature that often remains unseen in normal life. A sadistic nature that flourishes in an organized context feels supported by others. This togetherness makes it possible to commit the most unimaginable atrocities, sadistic acts that far exceed all understanding.

People don't want humanity to be so cruel that they don't want to delve into it. Whoever does take that step to delve into it, will acknowledge that it exists.

The problem is that it is happening now, in our society. It is the reality in which children are trapped who experience things that no one can believe. Sadism means that perpetrators enjoy scaring and confusing, hurting and subjugating other people. Someone who has to experience this from an early age cannot function according to the normal expectations of society.

We want to shine light into those corners of a dark world that is unseen and often denied.

We have learned to have to do the impossible and unlearned to be allowed to do the possible. We at Spotlight find the survival systems of victims of this violence very normal and admire their creativity, strength and functionality. For us, credibility increases precisely when experiencing such a survival system. 

No normal person will be able to understand what other people can do to children. This makes it so incredibly difficult to believe that it really exists, especially when a child tries to explain it without knowing the right words. We know better than anyone what it is like to collide with walls of disbelief and incomprehension when confronted with the truth.

Straighten what is crooked.

In the Netherlands, there are organized criminal networks in which children are abused. Images have been found on the Dark Web that are made and traded by such networks. The seriousness of the organized connection in combination with mind control and cooperation of educators, unfortunately often ensures that these forms of abuse can continue well into adulthood. Some of the victims do not get out of this during their lifetime. In addition, it is sometimes difficult to speak of victims and perpetrators in these forms of violence. It is a system in which victims are turned into perpetrators at an early age by forcing them to use violence on others. These systems can also be found in groups that recruit child soldiers.
This organized crime sometimes uses rituals and beliefs to subject children to the 'higher' and thus ensure that they cooperate in child prostitution and child pornography. These techniques fall under 'mind control'. This is called ritual abuse. Often, these groups do not worship a God but a Devil, in which case it is called Satanic Ritual Abuse.

Judith Herman: “In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does every-thing in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.” Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

What Spotlight wants to achieve:

• Bringing the dark world of organised abuse to light.
• Recognition of sadistic ritual violence by mentioning it as a separate issue with the justice system and the police; they are part of it but the target group is broader
• The justice system and the police take us seriously so that we can be believed, seen and protected
  
• Collecting stories from survivors from networks
• Contributing to an organised approach to child trafficking that transcends the individual

1. The dark world, by this we mean:

Adults who have experienced abuse as children should be treated with the same respect and credibility as all other people. This is a difficult point because people from a criminal world are often seen as belonging to that criminal world and the social institutions are then less focused on saving people from this dark criminal world. Children in this criminal world also learn that they are worthless and that their lives are unimportant or bad. So they have mainly unlearned to stand up for themselves. Furthermore, there is often a case of recovered memories, this is one of the characteristics of trauma. These recovered memories often wrongly evoke disbelief in people who do not know this.

2. Recognition by the judiciary and police:
2.1 justice: In abuse cases, it is often the word of the perpetrator against the word of the victim. Hard evidence is lacking and perpetrators go free. In organized violence, it is important to investigate abuse cases in their connection with each other. Victims often do not know that each other is in the same network. Even if they do know, the justice system is often not set up to ask or search for connections. The investigation by VPRO Argos and Daniel Verlaan shows that there will logically be organized connections. Through contact with our supporters, we know that there are multiple connections. It is high time that more thorough and combined research is conducted into different organizations.
2.2 Police: The police say they do not have enough capacity to deal with all cases. They only deal with cases that are 8 years old or younger. When there is organised abuse, it is often impossible for a victim to report within 8 years. After 8 years of being out of the network, you have not yet recovered enough to be able to handle a case; 20 years is more realistic. So both the capacity and the handling rules of which cases are or are not taken up must be expanded.

3. To be believed, seen and protected:
People who report organised abuse are generally not treated as people who are entangled in an active criminal network or have just fled from one. Their unsafe situation is not sufficiently recognised by the police and the judiciary. In most cases, the network concerns an immediate family member (e.g. mother or father) and the victim has no refuge whatsoever.

4. Survivor stories from networks:
Receiving and recording experience stories and finding out what the importance is for the victims. If -per individual- desired; collecting the experience stories as a supplement for official research.

5. Tackling child trafficking:
Networks prostitute children and sell child pornography. This is therefore a case of human trafficking, namely of (young) children! A morals approach from the police and justice does not meet these situations. It is necessary that an approach from human trafficking is used here.

Mission
Perpetrators and networks are arrested and tried and victims are protected and receive good treatment. If networks are dismantled, it can be prevented that children are abused and trafficked en masse by networks as is happening now.
Safety measures for people who report a network such as name change, safe houses. Also guidance by trauma experts at the time of reporting. Police and justice that deal with child trafficking are educated in characteristics of early childhood chronic traumatization.

Vision
People who have experienced organized abuse should be heard and protected. Networks should be tracked down and neutralized. Organized abuse, sadistic abuse and ritual abuse are an unseen, but very real social problem.

Board of Directors of the Spotlight Foundation
The board consists of three board members.
Chair: Stefanie 
Secretary: Rosemary 
Treasurer: Ellen

Financial
The board and employees all work voluntarily for the foundation and can be reimbursed for the expenses incurred.
The financial management lies with the treasurer and the chairman. During board meetings, decisions are made regarding major expenses.
The foundation is dependent on donations, a possibility for this will soon be available via the website. If you want to transfer money now, you can send an email to info@wijzijnspotlight.nl. We will then provide further information about this.
RSIN: 863917719
KvK-nr.: 86276654