We present solutions

The issues that Two Wishes is focused on know no national borders. The desire for our children to grow up in a happy home, and to have the best chances in life, is universal.

But, the ways in which we value our children and families – and how we deal with family breakdown, in particular – vary considerably around the globe. This gives us great opportunities to see how children and families thrive in different situations and to uncover what politicians and policy-makers like to call “world’s best practices”: successful ideas from one country that may work well in others. These form the basis of our evidence-based, fresh approach to family breakdown: our 2040 Vision.

Exploring this website will give you an opportunity to explore the world – to see how people and governments in different countries deal with the same, very human issues. How best to look after children. How best to help and support families. And how best to help children and families that are vulnerable.

In many countries, family breakdown is one of the leading contributors to such vulnerability, to childhood trauma and to diminished health. With 20-40% of children in many countries experiencing such major changes to family life, it is both a major, widespread social issue and a public health crisis.

By clicking on our menu, or on various tabs on each post, you will find:

• An outline of our vision, aims, activities and people;
  
• Information and advice for children, young people, parents and professionals;
  
• The science and art that helps us discover and understand what’s best for the wellbeing of families;
  
• The voices of young people who’ve experienced major changes to their family and what they can tell us;
  
• How different parts of the world are addressing issues of family wellbeing and family breakdown; and
  
• Our “2040 vision”: examples of programs, pilot schemes and practices from around the world that lead the way in promoting family wellbeing, and policies in different countries that promise a fresh approach to the major health and social issue of family breakdown.

If you explore this site, you can find out why children in Sweden, in general, do so much better after a family separation than in many other countries; how more traditional, extended families – with active involvement of grandparents and other relatives – in indigenous communities or parts of Asia, for instance, may protect children against some of the worst outcomes when parents split up; and how, although law-based systems are spectacularly ill-suited to dealing with family breakdown in general, some family courts manage to make decisions within weeks where others can take years to accomplish the same task, with enormous, consequential damage to children.

We will bring you stories from around the world – of programs and solutions that support family wellbeing and address disruptions to family life – and will show how these may be employed more widely; many more children and families can benefit from examples of world’s best practices that may have begun in one major city or one remote village – once we all know about them and can see the benefits.

Although the importance of family is universal, we recognize that families are different around the world. Different cultures. Different lifestyles. Different challenges.

From our inception, our Vision and Aims are being published in multiple languages, accessible to a majority of people around the world. You can access these via flags on the About pages or, for some languages, via the bottom menu.

We will also, increasingly, be publishing key stories and information in languages other than English. You can already see automatic translations of the entire website in many other languages by clicking on the flag in the top menu and using the drop-down menu to choose your language. If you would like to view the site in another language, not yet included, please let us know.

If you want to find out about a particular country, click on the name of that country (if you see it on a coloured tag) and that will bring up linked articles. Your own ideas and contributions are always welcome too.