Father finds tsunami child after four weeks
Truck driver Mustafa Kamal had dreams that his five-year-old daughter survived the tsunami waves that smashed into Indonesia, and he spent the past four weeks searching for her in refugee camps.
His persistence finally paid off today.
Kamal saw his girl’s name on a list posted at the office of international aid group Save the Children.
He screamed when he saw her and cried as he fell to his knees to hug his daughter, Rina Augustina.
“By the grace of God! I knew you were alive! I knew it!” Kamal screamed as they embraced in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of tsunami-ravaged Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
Rina grabbed her father and began crying. Between sobs, she asked where her father had been and demanded to see her mother, who is still missing.
The girl was cared for by a family she didn’t know after the St Stephen's Day tsunami separated her from her family.
“Another family looking for their son told me they saw her name on the board, so I came here,” Kamal said. “It came to me in a dream that she stayed alive.”
The girl was the first to be reunited with her family under a Save the Children programme that compiles lists of children’s names and asks radio stations to broadcast the information, said the group’s spokeswoman, Eileen Burke.
The local newspaper Serambi has also played a role in reuniting families. One advert in the paper shows five-year-old Sherina Azahra with a teddy bear and describes her as wearing Mickey Mouse earrings and a gold chain emblazoned with the letter S when she went missing in Aceh.
Another depicts two missing brothers – Satria Mulia and Muhammad Farhan – in traditional Islamic robes with a phone number to call below their pictures.
“We thought the newspaper was our best option. Our last remaining resources are put in here,” said Sri Muryani, mother of the two boys. “We have not put their photo anywhere else, but we have been to camps looking for them. No one has told us where to go.”
Over the radio, broadcasters read out names of children living in camps across Aceh’s capital.
All over the city, posters of the missing are displayed on street lamps, refugee settlement areas, offices of various organisations and the government’s central information centre.
While Unicef and Save The Children have been busy gathering information about children in refugee camps, local officials have also started a Lost Children’s Operation.
That initiative initially involved posters that list the child’s full name, address, age and parents, something international groups warn could possibly lead to kidnapping and child trafficking.
Aid groups say it would be easier for traffickers to claim children if they have all available information on the child made known to public, especially since there are no DNA tests performed for such reunification programmes in Aceh yet.
The UN has warned of an increase in child trafficking but there have been no confirmed reports yet.
