Closer work needed to find Aceh children a home

Closer work needed to find Aceh children a home

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While everyone agrees that it takes a village to raise a child,
the combined efforts of various institutions and organizations to
find a home for orphaned and separated Acehnese children have yet
to receive the greater attention they need.

The government, international relief organizations and foreign
and local non-governmental organizations (NGO) came to an almost
unanimous decision that removing the children from their
hometowns for adoption or to orphanages are not an option.

However, the as yet unfounded, but sensitive issues of child
abduction and trafficking have been a stumbling block in their
work.

Syaiful Amri, the coordinator of a youth group network called
Lost Children Operation! in Banda Aceh -- the capital of Nanggroe
Aceh Darussalam and the city worst hit by the disaster -- said
their effort to locate children living with neighbors or family
friends was relatively smoother, because they spoke the same
language.

"When we try to gather data on how many children survived, the
people tend to shut down all access. We have to approach the
neighborhood chief or local religious leaders to explain our
intentions before they will take us to the children," he said.

"Besides, many of the families who have taken in (orphaned or
separated) children lost their own children to the tsunami. They
just want to be a whole family again without much fanfare or
publicity," Syaiful added.

He said the network, which was supported by Japanese religious
group Kougetsu Shinjukai, had found of such children out of more
than 100 children who were living with other families across
Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar municipalities.

The network, together with the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), is
currently distributing flyers that bear the photographs of
missing children of families who are living in shelters.

The network's database, according to Syaiful, has been
reorganized according to the international standard introduced by
UNICEF and Save the Children, with whom they maintained regular
communication.

In its effort to reunite the children with their parents -- or
at least their closest living relatives -- the PMI has
established two special services: "I'm Alive" and "I'm Looking
For". Through these services, the PMI posts the photographs and
names of missing and separated children on its bulletin boards
across Aceh and in the neighboring North Sumatra capital of
Medan.

"But it's not easy to get complete information on where a
child was found after the tsunami or information on their parents
and residence, because many children who survived are too young
to remember such things," said Anwar, a Red Cross volunteer who
is in charge of maintaining the services.

Meanwhile, the government took immediate steps to set up a
joint ministerial task force to address children's issues in
Aceh. The task force is spearheaded by the Office of the
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and the Office of the
State Minister of Women's Empowerment.

That dozens of organizations and groups are involved in the
reunification effort is unavoidable, as the need is immense.
Although the government does not yet have a complete database on
missing and separated children, a rough estimate compiled from
various reports on missing people now reaches over 100,000
children.

"I believe up to 20,000 children are out there waiting to be
found by their families," Syaiful said.

While government institutions, relief organizations and NGOs
are of one mind about keeping the children in Aceh, they are
working independently to develop their own methods and resources
as well.

The National Family Planning Board (BKKBN), the front-runner
of its peers, has begun establishing its own Internet database,
which can be shared by others to avoid overlapping data.

"There are many of us in this pool together, but none of us
are communicating our data. That's a big problem," said Tri
Cahyadi, who was assigned to restore the BKKBN's branch office in
Banda Aceh.

Coordinating with a student group from Banda Aceh's Syiah
Kuala University, the BKKBN has registered over 1,500 separated
children and children whose parents were known to have perished
in the tsunami.

Further, the agency is negotiating with local newspapers to
run a regular "I'm Alive, Please Find Me" column, which will be
available to all reunification programs.

"But our budget is only adequate for several days'
advertisement ... Finding a home for these children must be
viewed as an open-ended effort. There is no time limit. But
without close coordination among us, it will take longer than we
expect," Tri said.