Mission on wheels: Edhi bus leaves City after reuniting two children with families

LAHORE: A special Edhi Bus, carrying lost children, left for Islamabad on Thursday after reuniting two children with their families in Lahore.

The bus, carrying 35 children, had left Karachi on June 12. Having reunited 22 children with their families in various cities, the bus had arrived in Lahore on Wednesday with 13 children onboard. Ali Sher, 11, a resident of Kharak, Multan Road, had gone missing a year ago. He was recovered by Edhi Foundation in Karachi after which he stayed at Edhi Home for a year. He told Edhi officials he had fled home because his father would beat him.

Anas, 7, a resident of China Scheme, had gone missing six months ago. He, too, was recovered by Edhi Foundation. He had escaped because his father would beat him up following separation with his mother.

When Edhi officials took Anas to his father’s house in China Scheme, he refused to take his custody. Anas was then taken to his mother who, too, refused to keep him with her. The child was then handed over to an uncle and grandfather. “The bus is run every year in the month of Ramazan as a goodwill gesture. It is an effort to bring back happiness for the family of the missing children,” said Younis Bhatti, an officer at Edhi Foundation’s Zonal Office in Iqbal Town. He said the bus was a decade-old initiative of Abdul Sattar Edhi who called it a mission. “It is a mission to reunite missing children with their families so that they can spend their Eid with their parents.”

Carrying 11 children, the bus will reach Islamabad on June 16. It will reach Afghanistan on June 21 via Peshawar and Balakot. Of the 11, two children belong to Islamabad, one each to Balakot and Peshawar and the remaining seven to Afghanistan. About the procedure of reuniting a child with his family, Bhatti said an Edhi team visited the locality identified by the child. “Announcements are made about him.”

Bhatti said such children fled home for various reasons; beating by family members being the most common. “A majority of such children have a poor financial background. Some of the children are lost while hanging out with the families.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2016.