Up to 10,000 Aceh children seek parents

Up to 10,000 Aceh children seek parents

Karima Anjani and Dan Eaton, Reuters/Banda Aceh

As many as 10,000 children in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated
Aceh province may be seeking lost parents, the United Nations and
other agencies said on Tuesday.

That figure represents about 2.5 percent of the 400,000 people
displaced on the northern end of Sumatra island by the giant
waves, triggered by an earthquake on Dec. 26.

But the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said the
number of youngsters without any surviving relatives or adult
support was much lower than initially feared.

"It is really, really difficult actually. We can only
estimate," UNICEF child protection officer Frederic Sizaret said
of the number of children who are unaccompanied or separated from
parents.

A social affairs ministry statement on Tuesday put the figure
at 10,000, while UNICEF said its estimate was up to 8,000.
More than seven weeks after the tsunami left more than 240,000
Acehnese dead or missing, UNICEF and Indonesian officials on
Tuesday were able to reunite one nine-year-old boy with his
distressed parents.

"My heart has swollen crying everyday. I told myself that my
son would come home, and I prayed to Allah," said Hayatun Nafis,
the boy's mother.

Officials said the boy, Iwan, recognized his flattened house
during a trip around the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Sunday.

Sizaret said the UNICEF figure for children seeking parents
was based on a surveyed sample of refugees and included
unaccompanied youngsters with no adult supervision and those
fostered with extended family or people from their community.
Of the 700 children registered as having lost their parents, 50-
60 were completely alone and without any support from an adult
they knew before the disaster.

More than 170 children had been entered into an inter-agency
database so far and were in the process of finding lost parents.
"The good thing here is family is generally very extended, so you
always have a cousin or a relative somewhere who can be
traced ... So, I'm confident most children will eventually find
some relatives," said Sizaret.

The tsunami had an enormous impact on children, with UNICEF
estimating that up to half of all the victims were youngsters, a
statement from the agency said.

The social affairs ministry statement on Tuesday said a
priority was being put on supporting families who had taken in
children and that adoption or institutional care, such as
orphanages, would be considered only as a last resort.

"Principally, the government wants children to grow up with
the provision of family-based care," said Haniff Asmara, head of
the social bureau at the ministry.

Adults seeking lost children through official channels are
shown five pictures of youngsters. If they correctly identify the
missing child additional questions are asked, such as the child's
favorite food, the names of school friends and what they were
last seen wearing.

The child is also asked questions and shown pictures of
adults.

To prevent the trafficking of children, the government has put
a moratorium on the adoption of children from Aceh. Children
under the age of 16 cannot leave the country without a parent.