ARTICLE - UNICEF

The following article is about the call centre established by Unicef for helping lost children. I wish I knew this number when we were searching for help for Dieula. We sure had difficulties in getting to Unicef for help for her! I'll have to make another visit to the airport area and ask them for this number. Hopefully I won't have trouble with security again. I wonder when they set this number up. Pray that we can find out what this number is and also for the efforts of Unicef at placing lost children.

CALL CENTRE RESPONDS TO NEEDS OF SEPARATED CHILDREN IN HAITIAN QUAKE ZONE
(Unicef) - By Cifora Monier

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 15 June 2010 – Five months after a massive earthquake devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, a simple telephone number continues to help to some of those still suffering the most – children separated from their families.

The toll-free number, established in the immediate wake of the 12 January earthquake, connects front-line service workers to a Separated Children Call Centre located at the UNICEF office in Haiti. The centre allows the many UNICEF partners working here to identify and register unaccompanied children. In many cases, it also enables the tracing and reunification of separated families.

First line of defense
“Hello, Separated Children Call Centre, how can I help you?” asks an operator. “Where exactly did you say the child is currently?”

Call centre operators are the first line of defense for separated children and the adults working to identify them. The operators record initial information, including a child’s location and approximate age, and the conditions under which he or she was located.

The Call Centre for Separated Children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is a joint partnership spearheaded by UNICEF, Save the Children, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Rescue Committee.

Today, the operator on call takes down the necessary information and dispatches two case workers to the scene. There is now a chance to identify a newly located child, and even a chance to reunite a family.

The Separated Children Call Centre is spearheaded by UNICEF, along with its non-governmental partners Save the Children, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Rescue Committee. Its telephone number, which is toll-free throughout Haiti, is intended for nurses, doctors and workers from UNICEF partner organizations who might have firsthand information on children separated from their families. UNICEF’s child-protection programme also has over 10 local partners in Haiti working on family tracing.

Step-by-step approach
Along with telephone operators, the call centre is staffed by two database officers, an information coordinator and an agent from the government’s adoption investigation agency. Case workers meet and register a child on-site and determine if the child is being cared for in a secure place. Only then does family tracing – a process that may take up to several weeks – become the priority.

Family tracing is initiated based on several key factors:

Is the child old enough to express himself or herself?

Does the child know his or her last home address – and if not, does the child recall any phone numbers?

Does the child know the names of his or her parents, siblings or next of kin?

Does the child remember a specific landmark near his or her home?

Names, landmarks and even sketches drawn by the children can all lead child-protection officers to a missing family.

Continued efforts, strong results
According to UNICEF Child Protection Specialist Christina Torsein, the call-centre project is showing strong results.

"This inter-agency collaboration has been instrumental in mobilizing communities and government social workers to increase their capacity to protect children and respond to their needs in a coordinated and timely manner," she says.

Since the earthquake, more than 1,500 unaccompanied children have been registered. Of these, many are being hosted by neighbours – who share whatever little they have – until their immediate or extended families are found.

At the same time, the intricate work of tracing families goes on. "However taxing the challenges may be, each child is an individual requiring personalized follow up," explains Ms. Torsein.

"Despite how quickly we want to reunify them, it sometimes takes longer than we hope."