127 missing children reunited with families

Unicef says 127 children, out of total 146 reported missing in flood zones, have been reunited with their families.

ISLAMABAD: A total of 127 children - out of the total 146 reported missing in the flood zone - have so far been reunited with their families, according to Unicef.

However, this figure does not include Sindh province about which no data is available.

The catastrophic floods - which have affected 20 million people nationwide - have left children in the most vulnerable situation as there is no mechanism for data collection, data management, and implementation plan at the government level.

Last month, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) conducted a meeting with its stakeholders in which it identified the need to address the issue of missing children.

The ministry of interior had planned to establish a data collection cell through which they would gather the figures and work on the remaining missing children. However, the ministry so far has failed to produce the statistics, leaving the NDMA to chalk out a more systematic strategy to address the matter.

Recently, NDMA brought all the agencies - Unicef, NGOs and INGOs working under the child protection cell - together to highlight the key issues, categorise and prioritise matters that need to be addressed on the district, provincial and national level. The agencies presented affective action plans.

Aliya Nguyen from gender and child cell NDMA, had said “we have asked all the agencies involved with Unicef to provide us with data and information on missing children within two to three weeks to build a more uniform system. Today we are chalking out a strategy, tomorrow we will get down working and providing an updated figure.”

In their presentation the agencies highlighted that there is no legal status of a missing child in Pakistan. They suggested creation of a centralised system of registration and a centralised database to be maintained by NDMA and Unicef. The documentation should be simple and there has to be periodical updates and well-defined referral system.

Noha from Unicef said: “This is a platform to get everyone together; people have no information if all the children have returned and (more importantly) if they have returned to the right families”.

The agencies had come to a conclusion that they need to gain consensus through this forum and adopt tools to enhance coordinated response, determine its progress, have the knowledge of outcomes, and be well aware of the management of issues.

“We need to use tools which are already being used globally, and see which one of those can be implemented in Pakistan,” said Jessie Thomson from International Committee of the Red Cross.

NDMA has given the agencies two weeks in which to provide data, stats, and documentation of the missing children. “We need to bring the issues into focus and take action,” said Nguyen.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2010.