Separated from her children for four years, Pilunnguaq Olsen is barely daring to start hoping again. For the first time in a long while, the 38-year-old Greenlander, living in Aalborg, northern Denmark, has received good news. On March 24, social services informed her that she could now see her children once a week, instead of twice a month. She is also allowed to attend the handball games of her 13-year-old daughter, who is placed with her 11-year-old brother in a foster family, while their 6-year-old sister lives with another Danish family.

For the Inuit woman with long brown hair and dark eyes, the nightmare began four years ago. A victim of harassment by her ex-partner, the father of her children, she contacted the police, sought help from a Greenlandic advocacy group and finally turned to social services. They offered to take care of her children for four months while she found a safer apartment. She agreed. The problems began when she wanted to take them back. A psychologist administered tests and concluded that she was "unfit" to care for them.

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