From the field work the founder was involved in between 2007 and 2009, it became clear that there was a severe lack of legal instruments and institutional support to meet the needs of ICA victims. More importantly, many victims reached out to controversial and sometimes even criminal methods and entities in seeking ways to solve their cases and have their children returned to them. Originally the foundation therefore set out to perform two tasks, the first was to function as a controller, only reimbursing victims where they had followed practices or procedures which were in line with the law and the foundation’s regulations. The second was to gather information that would help in preventing ICA cases. This would be achieved by studying the situation at hand, talking with the victims, collecting the data and building a strategy on the basis of the gathered information. By the end of 2009, the foundation had been approached by victims in nearly 120 ICA cases, and had provided a wide range of advice and guidance to those victims.

By July 2010, it became clear that functioning as a financial gate keeper for the victims was impractical and would not help the foundation reach its objectives. Furthermore, providing support for so many victims was too heavy a workload and financial burden for the foundation to carry, and it stopped the foundation from positioning itself properly to be able to become strategically effective even though the direct contact with the victims and the involvement in carrying out field work had helped the board understand the ins and outs of the ICA arena much better.

As a result, the board decided that the foundation would focus on conducting research, gathering valuable information in the field of ICA, and on communicating with experts and decision makers rather than directly with the victims. In October 2010, the foundation had four (bachelor level) research students studying aspects of importance for the foundation. The conducted studies dealt with the following subjects:

• Potentials for cooperation between NPLH and existing institutions
• The spectrum of international law to be taken into account when dealing with ICA
• How to position the foundation to better accomplish its goals
• The effects of changes to the Dutch Central Authority on ICA

The key element in the conducted research was to study how the foundation could position itself better to serve the best interest of the child in ICA cases. The foundation supported the Vereniging IKO (the ICA Association) in positioning itself better in Dutch political debates on the ICA subject. By the start of 2011, the foundation had markedly decreased its contact with victims to a bare minimum.

The four research studies were concluded in September 2011. The results made it clear that the foundation would inevitably have to expand its focus on an international level, rather than only be active within the Netherlands. Furthermore, it would have to focus its efforts on further gathering knowledge by launching a series of specialised research projects in various fields closely connected to ICA. The foundation was further advised to concentrate its efforts on building up an information centre with specialist knowledge that would provide advice, recommendations and support to decision makers, experts and victims alike. Furthermore, it transpired that the foundation would have to abandon its aspiration to act as a financial gate keeper for reimbursing victims in order to gain the stability and transparency it would need to obtain the financing required to achieve its goals effectively.