4 August 2014 - Authorities in the Northern Bahr El-Ghazal State today launched an exercise to reunify more than 80 children who have been living on the streets in the state capital Aweil with their families in different counties in the state.

The reunification, which will done in collaboration with Save the Children International and UNMISS, follows successful counselling of the children over a seven-day period at a reformatory centre owned by the Directorate of Child Welfare in the state Ministry of Social Development.

“Now they are ready to go home,” said Save the Children Field Manager William Deng, who also urged that the children should not be referred to as “street children”, but rather as “children without proper parental care".

Mr. Deng noted that children run away from home and take to the streets for several reasons including lack of food, domestic abuse and other family misunderstandings.

“We need to solve the root cause,” he stressed. “The best interest of the child is to be taken care of by the relatives.”

Acting State Governor Kuel Aguer Kuel noted that in order to achieve successful and sustainable reunification, it was necessary to take several steps.

“You need to counsel the parents to try to eradicate the reason why the child ran away and to provide a protective environment within the family,” he said. “(The third step) is following up. If you reunify a child today, it is better to come the next day to see whether the child is at home or not.”

The government was committed to doing everything possible to maintain cohesive family unity, as well as to provide social services like health and education, he said.

UNMISS was supporting the initiative by providing technical advice and coordinating closely with the Ministry of Social Development, the mission’s Child Protection Officer Aryal Ganesh said.

“Armed conflict during the then Sudan’s civil war, socio-economic conditions of the state, and low education levels are the main causes for children leaving their homes,” he said.

Noting that it was vital to follow up reunification, Mr. Ganesh stressed that abandoning children by parents or relatives is punishable according to the Child Act of Southern Sudan 2008

“Therefore if a child returns to the street, after reunification, the parent or caretaker of the child should be questioned by the Law according the Child Act,” he said.