Children’s Welfare Stamps

PostNL issues children’s welfare stamps to raise money for projects focused on children in vulnerable situations. This is done through a surcharge of €0.70 per stamp. The proceeds from all surcharges go to the projects of Kinderpostzegels, an independent charity committed to equal opportunities for every child. Many children start life at a significant disadvantage due to poverty, loneliness and problems at home. Kinderpostzegels has been supporting these children for more than 100 years with impactful programmes that strengthen their resilience.

History
In 1924, a royal decree established that stamps with a surcharge ‘for disadvantaged children’ may be issued in the Netherlands. At the time, the children’s welfare stamps were sold exclusively by volunteer committees. In 1948, following an idea by a schoolteacher, a pilot was carried out in which primary school pupils sold the stamps, enabling children to support other children. Due to its success, this approach was introduced nationwide in 1949. Today, more than 3,000 schools and over 100,000 children take part every year. Since 2017, the campaign has been included in the Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands.

Special stamps
Over the years, many distinctive children’s welfare stamps have been created. For example, Prince Claus photographed his three sons for the campaign in 1972, and in 2012 Prince Willem-Alexander did the same with his three daughters. Stamps have also featured illustrations by well-known Dutch illustrators such as Dick Bruna (1969 and 2005), Max Velthuijs (1998), Fiep Westendorp (2016) and Jan van Haasteren (2025). The 100th anniversary of Kinderpostzegels was celebrated in 2024 with a ‘super stamp’: an exceptionally large stamp that allowed a video message to be sent.

Theme 2026
This year’s theme is ‘Growing up safely. It should simply be the norm.’ No child should feel unsafe. Yet in the Netherlands, many children still grow up in an unsafe home environment. Every year, the number of reported cases of child abuse* increases, even though home should be a place where children receive protection and loving attention. For many children, unfortunately, this is not the case. They experience serious conflict, neglect, tension or violence. This often happens behind closed doors, and many children do not dare to speak about it. After five years of research, the Children’s Ombudsman concluded that 8 out of 10 of these children receive no support.* Instead of trust and enjoyment, these children often feel fear and stress. Growing up in an unsafe environment makes it difficult to learn, play and develop. This leaves deep marks, either immediately or later in life, such as mental or physical health problems. The children’s welfare stamps, designed and hand-drawn by Blond Amsterdam, draw attention to this issue in a positive way and show children who are safely at home playing, sleeping, doing sports, reading and baking.

Collaboration
Sofie Vriends, director of Kinderpostzegels: ‘I find it incredibly valuable that PostNL and Blond Amsterdam are joining us in raising awareness of growing up safely. This theme is more important than ever, as we unfortunately hear far too often that things are not going well. Behind more than 100,000 front doors, children are growing up in situations where safety and stability are not a given. This needs to improve. Through this collaboration, we show that together we can make a difference.’

*Source: Veilig Thuis: Cijfers over Veilig Thuis | Nederlands Jeugdinstituut

*Source: Children’s Ombudsman: https://www.kinderombudsman.nl/nieuws/acht-van-de-tien-kinderen-die-opgroeien-met-geweld-thuis-krijgen-geen-hulp.

Features
A distinctive feature this year is the unusual shape of the stamp sheet and the stamps themselves. The stamps are also self-adhesive, whereas in previous years they were gummed. In addition to the 5 stamps, the sheet includes several elements that can be used as stickers on a card or letter.

Special edition
In addition to the sheet with 5 stamps, a special stamp sheet has been produced for the campaign featuring 4 of the 5 stamps. This version does not include the stamp with the baking children, resulting in a slightly different layout. However, an extra sticker has been added. This stamp sheet is available exclusively via Kinderpostzegels in sets of two and is not intended for individual sale through PostNL. A total of 500,000 copies of this special campaign sheet have been printed.

DESIGN

Houses
‘We are truly honoured to have been given the opportunity to design the children’s welfare stamp this year,’ says Femque van Geffen of Blond Amsterdam. ‘I am a strong advocate of sending cards not digitally, but by hand with a stamp on them. In 2009, we created the December stamp. That was also wonderful to do, but I believe this theme aligns even better with the illustrations we usually create. Since stamps are typically rectangular or square, the theme “growing up safely” quickly led us to houses. Initially, we considered five houses in a row, like a street, but that felt too static. So we separated the houses and partially stacked them. Each house or room features one or two children at its centre. In this way, they form individual “stories” showing what children should be able to do safely at home. Fortunately, PostNL was happy for us to work with unconventional shapes. With the stickers around the stamps a sun, a heart, a ladybird on a flower we aim to convey love and cheerfulness, and with the dove delivering post we make an extra plea for post delivered to the home. For the special campaign sheet with four stamps, we removed the house with the baking children, lowered one of the houses on the sheet and added a sticker with a cloud.’

About the designers
Femque van Geffen studied at the Utrecht School of the Arts and is one of the founders and illustrators of Blond Amsterdam. The company started in 2001 as a two-person business in a very small studio in Amsterdam, without hot water but with a ceramic kiln, where hand-painted tableware was produced. Today, Blond Amsterdam’s vividly illustrated tableware can be found in kitchens throughout the Netherlands and beyond, and the company now works with a design team. Nevertheless, each illustration is still created using pencil, ink and watercolour. Blond Amsterdam previously designed the December stamps sheet (2009).