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Katarina Tomšič (1988) first proved her deep interest in the field of social work, especially adoptions, in high school. She entered a competition for young researchers with a paper titled Adopting a child in her third year of high school. She received a recognition award from the municipality of Ljubljana and was honored for the special efforts in the subject by her sociology professor. 




In October of the same year, she participated in establishing the foundations of the now very successful project Child advocate – voice of the child under the auspices of the Ombudsman. She was one of the main speakers on the subject in the National Assembly and actively participated in the project teams. Her contribution was included in the conference proceeding and was later also added to the educational materials for advocates.
A year later, she chose the same topic for her graduation project and approached it from the legal point of view.

The reason for her interest in the topic of adoption originates from her personal experience of being adopted. Her adoption was quite unsuccessful and she only lived with her adoptive parents until she was 13 years old. From then on she lived in another form of social parenthood that is well established in Slovenia – foster care. She found the foster parents all by herself when she was only 14 years old.

After finishing high school she continued with her studies in the Faculty of Economics but numbers and digits weren’t her main focus. She found the greatest joy in working with people. She spent a couple of years working as a flight attendant until she had to stop due to health reasons. This has led to an intense engagement in the topic of social parenthood, especially adoptions, within the Humanitarian Association for Adoptees. AS - Adoptee's Society was founded by her and two other adult adoptees in November of 2009.



On November 27th, two years later, she organized the first charity concert in Bohinjska Bistrica, where she presented the concept of her new project – the release of a baby book for adopted children.



The baby book was published in May 2012 under the title Our Very First 1095 Steps and was officially introduced to the public in the second charity concert in June of 2012.
The project was supported by numerous experts in the field of social work, adoption, etc.:

  • Ana Vodičar, M.Sc., Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Family directorate
  • Darja Zaviršek, Ph.D., Professor at Faculty of social work
  • Martina Jenkole, M.Sc., Project manager for project Advocate – a child's voice, Human Rights Ombudswoman of the Republic of Slovenia
  • Vlasta Nussdorfer, Human Rights Ombudswoman of the Republic of Slovenia and president of Beli obroč, association for the assistance to victims of criminal offences
  • Dr. Suad Numanović, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare of Montenegro
  • Svetlana Sovilj, child protection counselor, Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare of Montenegro
  • Zoran Janković, mayor of the city of Ljubljana
  • Vuka Golubovič, mayor of the municipality Berane, Montenegro



On her birthday, April 26th 2012, she opened an office for assistance in arranging documents for international adoptions with the purpose of uniting all the bureaucratic procedures in the same place (verification, translation, travels, etc). In July 2013 she decided to close the office.

From May 1st, she has been writing the first Slovenian blog on the topic of adoptions which has a monthly average of 7.000 views. You can visit it on: katarinatomsic.blogspot.com.

On July 21st, she was invited to visit her hometown Berane (Ivangrad) in Montenegro as part of the celebrations of the municipality day and complete the ceremony with her speech. On this occasion, she addressed the President of Montenegro and presented him with her book. She also used the visit as an opportunity to actively participate in a Uniceff seminar on the subject of implementation of foster care in Montenegro.







On October 22nd 2012, she participated in a press conference at the publication of the book Domestic and international adoptions: From personal experiences to good practice by Darja Zaviršek, Ph.D., Faculty of social work. The book included Katarina's fairy tale, which was written as an example of how to tell a child that he/she is adopted.

In November 2012, she organized a charity campaign Be kind, bring a gift together with Ivana Djilas, a renowned Slovenian director, whom she met on the set of an televised interview on the topic of adoption. Together they gathered over 200 kg of toys, clothes and candy for the orphanages in Serbia and Montenegro and for children in Africa – Burundi. The campaign was supported by the Municipality of Ljubljana which also helped with the donations for the children.







On January 8th 2013, she visited an orphanage in Zvečanski, Serbia, where she personally handed over the collected clothes, toys and candy together with Ivana Djilas. 

At the end of January 2013, she collaborated with Malči Belič Youth Care Center on a project of international exchange with children from Bijela Children’s home, an orphanage, where she had spent her first year as a baby. She also assisted in co-financing the transport for the project.

On February 12th 2013, she successfully completed another international charity project Toys and clothes for Africa in cooperation with the international organization ADRA. 
In June 2013, she completed a humanitarian project in collaboration with the Society of Mozaik.

She first visited the Children’s home Rada Vrašnjević of Banja Luka in September 2013. She then started to collaborate with them and prepared a birthday surprise for a six-year-old girl on September 26th.








In early October 2013, her home town invited her to participate in the promotion of foster care in their city. She was unable to attend the event and instead recorded a promotional video which received a very positive feedback in Montenegro.

At the end of October 2013, she signed a cooperation agreement to create an online application based on the book Our very first 1095 steps. It was released in January 2014.

In December 2013, the CSW Krško invited her to be a lecturer on the topic of Adoption and foster care in their annual event for adoptive and foster families.







Since 2006 she has participated in numerous interviews on the topic of adoption both on television and in print media. Ringaraja.net, a portal for parents, invited her to participate on their page as an expert in the field of adoption and answer readers’ questions on this topic.

She wants to start a family in the future and maybe even adopt. She has trouble selecting just one life motto, but still:
"Definitely live for the moment because life is short. Express your feelings to your loved ones because every moment in life is unrepeatable. So why wouldn’t you use it for something so beautiful?”







Opinions about the author



Ana Vuksanović


B.Soc.Sc.,
CSW Berane, Montenegro

"At that holy and divine moment when a woman becomes a mother for the first time, she’s not fully aware of the weight, complexity and responsibility of her future role. Nature has given her reflexes, instincts and emotions, so that for the first time, consciously or not, she can hold her CHILD in her arms, embrace it and keep it forever... Sometimes, however, due to various, mostly painful life circumstances, unfortunately only for a moment..."

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mag. Martina Jenkole


Project manager for project Advocate – a child's voice,
Human Rights Ombudswoman of the Republic of Slovenia

"I met Katarina as a thirteen-year-old girl who came up to me during a turbulent chapter in her life and was, despite her youth, determined to take a step forward; she was just not quite sure how to do it yet. That was when she decided to open a new page in the story of her life. She stuck to it despite numerous difficulties."

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Letter from another mother…


"I, too, adopted my third daughter. Her name is Katarina..."


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