No words could describe it

May, 28th.

I’m in Goma to find out more about how we care for and reunify children who have been separated from their parents due to the ongoing war in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. From the briefing I’ve had with the protection team, two words come back regularly: “tracing” and “reunification”. Despite all the explanations, I don’t get the real sense of what these words mean until I see the process taking place for myself.

Because of the fighting, thousands of people have to flee their homes to seek safety in cities like Goma (capital city of North Kivu province). When large numbers of people move to flee the fighting, children often become separated from their parents. Alone, they follow groups of adults, as they don’t know where to go.

When they arrive in camps for people displaced by the war, Save the Children starts the long process of their identification. Some of the children, despite their trauma, are able to remember the names of their parents and where they are from. Save the Children takes their picture and displays it in several places around the camps. Some children are identified by adults who are living in the camps who then provide us with more information about the family. In other cases, our staff only has the information provided by the child himself.

In the meantime, the child is taken to a foster family. The foster families are chosen  according to very selective criteria. Save the Children supports the child, providing them with essential needs like clothes, health cares… and the foster family receives a symbolic grant of US$ 3 per day. Even if it helps the family somehow, it cannot buy the love the child is given by their foster family.

When I first visited a child in a foster family, I couldn’t distinguish him from the other household children, until he was pointed out, because he was entirely integrated in the family.

The tracing process is a long one that leads to extended research in remote areas which are sometimes very difficult to get to. To carry out such work, Save the Children works with local partners, relying upon their knowledge of the local area and people. Fortunately, almost all the children are eventually reunified with their families. The parents are found and informed that their child is alive and safe. When the security situation permits, Save the Children provides the child with a package of food and non-food items, and drives him to his parent’s home.

I saw one girl, Marie, being reunified with her family. I arrived in Marie’s village before she did. When we informed her mother of Marie’s arrival, she shouted, calling her neighbours to come and welcome her daughter. When Save the Children’s car stopped and Marie got out of it, her mother rushed forwards crying. “Ho my daughter! You are alive, I thought that you were dead!” The daughter said, “Mum I’m alive and I’m back”. Whispering, the mother said, “Forgive me my dear, forgive me and welcome back home. Don’t cry. Your mum is with you.” That was a very moving scene that no words could properly describe.

Tags: reunification, tracing

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