Sick toddler Teleza (1.5) finally has a Dutch passport for much needed heart surgery

Teleza is Nicole van Elteren's daughter. She runs a children's home and development projects in Malawi. Teleza was pressed into her arms when she was a few days old. The biological mother was dead, the father unknown and Teleza herself turned out to be critically ill. She had four holes in the heart that would kill her without surgery.

Adoption

Because the life-saving operations were not carried out in Africa, but in the Netherlands, Nicole decided to adopt the child. That's how Teleza would become Dutch. But where Malawi recognized the adoption in June 2020, the Netherlands did not. Malawi was seen as a weak adoption country, because Malawi's law states that adopted children in principle keep the right to an inheritance from their biological parents.

Although Teleza has no biological parents, the Netherlands stuck to that rule. Teleza was denied a passport, so she was not entitled to health insurance. Because the baby was getting sicker and was in danger of dying in the meantime, Nicole decided to travel to the Netherlands in September to have Teleza operated on uninsured. Almost 110,000 euros was raised through crowdfunding to finance the very expensive interventions.

Judge

In the meantime, Nicole, who temporarily moved in with her parents in Rijsbergen with Teleza and her two older daughters, tried to get the adoption recognized through the court. With result. Since this week, Teleza can officially call itself Dutch.

Much to Nicole's relief. "Now that she has a passport, she is eligible for health insurance." Very nice, because although Teleza has already had surgery three times, the acute danger to life has passed and she is doing relatively well, she is not there yet. Her heart is still weak and the holes have not closed. She must go under the knife at least two more times.

Expensive and drastic operations again. Which Nicole now in any case no longer has financial worries about. And that is worth a lot. An operation in itself is worrisome enough.

Just this ...

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