South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission is appealing to agencies to wipe away the tears of six thousand children who have been reunified with their families after many years of separation due to conflict.
Save the Children, UNICEF and partners traced, identified and reunified the children with their families.
Manasseh Lomole Waya says the children went through a lot of difficulties before reunification.
He calls on the agencies involved in the process to wipe away their tears by providing capacity building, trauma healing, quality education and financial support.
The Chairperson says tracing families is very important and requires total commitment.
‘In addition to the action of identifying, tracing and bringing the children back to the parents, I want to appeal to the agencies that are involved, to carry on with capacity building of these families and reinforce support to them. The future of these children must be organized because they have gone through massive trauma. Therefore, there is need for trauma healing to both parents and children. So as to wipe away the tears of those being heavily wounded in hearts’, he emphasized.
Achol Uchol was separated from her three children since 2015. She narrates how she struggled to find her children.
‘I was in a very hard situation when I was separated from my children after fighting broke out in Upper Nile State in 2015. I was wondering how I could find my children. I escaped to Juba in 2015 seeking for refuge. From there, I couldn’t return home to look for my children. I stayed in Juba for some months and again fighting erupted in Juba in 2016. I had to run to Uganda. I looked for my children there, but I failed to find them. I came back to Juba in February and posted my telephone number on Facebook so that anyone who finds my children could call me. I later found one of my cousins on social media who told me the procedures of how to find my kids, she explained.
Another mother, Mary Nyaiwut was also separated and reunited with her children. She has this to say.
‘I would like to send my appreciation to the agencies. I left my children in 2013 July. I spent three years and half without hearing whether my children were alive or not. I left them with my younger sister. My sister came to Juba following our father who was sick. He came to Juba for treatment. When fighting erupted in Bentiu, then they ran for safety in POC. They stayed there without us knowing where they are until I heard that they are in the POC. I happen to hear about the agency working in POC facilitating reunification of families and I registered the case with them. I was worried. I couldn’t sleep well because all my three children were nowhere. Now that we are reunited, the worries I had which I could not sleep are no more. Now I can sleep comfortably’, she expressed her joy.
Acting Director-General in the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, Mary Kojo Ali, appreciates Save the Children and partners for reunifying the families.
‘We as women we know the pain you undergo. So it is a very, very difficult situation that women undergo when it comes to situations of separation. As a Ministry, we thank UNICEF and Save the Children for the better work’. She appreciated.
Ambassador of Norway to South Sudan, Lars Andersen says protecting children in armed conflict is their top priority.
UNICEF representative in South Sudan Mohamed Ag Ayoya says to bring the rest of the children back home, it needs strong partnership and support from the international community.
Almost 8,000 children in South Sudan are still missing or separated and are in urgent need of family tracing.