Roshni Helpline campaign

Internally-displaced toddler recovered

KARACHI, October 23, 2010: A two-year-old boy, who had gone missing in mysterious circumstances from the 500 Quarters’ IDPs Tent Village at the Gulshan-e-Benazir, Maripur, within the jurisdiction of Maripur Police Station, was recovered safe and secure after a massive month-long campaign by the missing children and abused children organisation -- the Roshni Helpline.

The Roshni Helpline had set up a child’s support centre at the camp, and Sobat Khan Jamali -- the father of the minor Iqbal Jamali -- told the helpline that his child was lost while playing in the camp area mysteriously and could not be reunified with them despite their efforts for his search and recovery. The helpline helped the family in lodging an FIR with the Maripur Police Station immediately.

Volunteers of the Organisation then launched a systematic campaign, contacting all local mosques for announcements, police stations, local administration and political figures of the Musharraf Colony, Hawksbay, and other areas of the Kemari Town and also to other volunteer organisations in the city. Posters and pamphlets were distributed in all areas giving a detailed description of the child.

After about one month of the massive hunt, the child was eventually turned by some unidentified persons to a mosque of Musharraf Colony, and the Roshni Helpline reunited him with his family, which expressed satisfaction and thanked the helpline for their campaign for recovery of the child. They said it was because of the pressure built up as a result of the campaign that their child was turned to them by the unidentified people who took him away. The family hails from Jakhu Goth, Tehsil Thul, District Jacobabad, and was shifted to the flood relief camp about two months ago.

The Roshni Helpline has now started follow-up of the case, and offering psychosocial support to the affected family and child. Roshni Helpline President Muhammad Ali said that the Organisation had warned concerned stakeholders against rise in the cases of missing and kidnapping of children. He said according to the experience of the Roshni network missing of children during any natural disasters goes up sharply because of lack of safety and security at these camps.