UNICEF Tracks Missing Children: Timor Leste

So often we see that during a dire worldly experience that causes a catastrophe it is always the women and children that suffer the most. Whether its starvation, displacement or loss of life, they seem to carry the brunt.

Thousands of children are separated from their family and friends and in a lot of cases never reunited. Look at any major disaster in the last five years and you will see from reports that the children are the ones that lose out big time. I can remember one massive flood in Bangladesh where many children lost everything they treasured and many of them ended up in sweat shops and even worse, being preyed upon by organised gangs to work in the sex trade.

Thankfully matters are little different in the Indonesian region. Humanitarian agencies in East Timor have begun registering tens of thousands of children in order to track those who have disappeared during the weeks of unrest in the capital Dili. According to an ABC New Australia report it is estimated that 133,000 people have fled their homes.

The United Nations childrens agency UNICEF says it has had reports of at least 15 children who have disappeared. In the process, some children have become separated from their families. The organisation says there is no suggestion that children have been killed or come to any harm.

UNICEF says it is likely many of the missing children are with friends or relatives in other camps. The aid organisation today began vaccinating 30,,000 children against measles to prevent an outbreak of infectious disease. The two week campaign aims to cover 50 refugee locations in Dili and its surroundings.