ARMERO: Martha Lucía López released the boat into the river alongside hundreds of others with the faces of missing children, in one last attempt to find her son, or rather, to pray that he would find her.
Her son, Sergio Melendro, was one of hundreds of children reported missing when a volcanic eruption devastated the Colombian town Armero on Nov. 13, 1985, and whose whereabouts remains unknown.
“The only option we have is for them, the people who adopted them, to tell the true story and for them (the children) to come to us,” the 67-year-old said.
Approximately 25,000 perished when the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted, making it the deadliest natural disaster in Colombia’s recent history and leaving the town in central-western Colombia uninhabited. The ensuing chaos led many children to be separated from their families, who keep searching for them 40 years later.
Losing Sergio
On the night of the eruption, López and her husband heard strange noises and left the house to see if something was wrong. She had heard on the news that the volcano was erupting, but left Sergio, 5 years old at the time, sleeping at home because she thought they were far enough away.
But soon the lava melted the volcano’s snow-capped peak and merged with the riverbeds, generating an avalanche that rushed down the mountains. The river overcame López and her husband, overturning their car and causing them to take refuge in a tree and then house.
Their house was destroyed, and she never saw Sergio again.
Years later, López learned her family had shared Sergio’s name in an ad on TV, and received information that he was at the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), the agency responsible for protecting children in the country.
López says that her sister tried to find him at the institute’s headquarters in Bogotá. “They never let her in… they asked her to bring clothes and photos proving she was family, nothing more.”
Years later, a friend of López’s told her that in New Orleans, a man approached her and said that his brother had adopted a child who was a victim of the Armero tragedy.
“He showed her a photo… Sergio’s eyes were unmistakable,” she says, referring to their blue color. However, they were never able to contact him again.
What happened to the children
Some children were taken by the ICBF, others were sent to nearby villages and others were never seen again, according to organizations tracking the issue and Ancizar Giraldo, who was 12 years old when the volcano erupted.
Giraldo spent almost four years at a social center funded with international donations until his mother found him using the photographs released by the ICBF.
The Armando Armero Foundation, a civil society organization, has documented 580 missing children, 71 of whom were reportedly adopted. So far, they have found four of them alive after collecting DNA samples.
“There is no single modus operandi. You can’t just say, ‘the children were stolen solely by the ICBF,’ there are many ways. Civilians even went to Armero right after the tragedy and saw children, took them home, and welcomed them with affection,” said the foundation’s director Francisco González. Others were sent to other parts of Colombia and beyond, he said.
Forty years ago, without the same access to information as today, families searched in person at shelters and ICBF offices.
Adriana Velásquez, deputy director general of the ICBF, explained to the AP that after the tragedy they received at least 170 children from Armero, according to the records they have found. She stated that they are investigating how many were given up for adoption, since at that time it was a decision made by the courts.
For many years, the families’ hopes rested on the ICBF’s “red book,” named for its red cover, which contains records of some of the children from Armero. This book was declassified in October, but is not a complete record of all the children reported missing or disappeared, Velásquez noted.
Despite the challenges, after four decades, families refuse to abandon their search.
“It’s been 40 years of hope,” said Benjamín Herrera, father of Óscar Fernando, who was 14 months old at the time of the tragedy. “And we will wait as long as it takes.”
Parents search for children missing since a volcanic eruption in Colombia 40 years ago
https://arab.news/nwx64
Parents search for children missing since a volcanic eruption in Colombia 40 years ago
- Some children were taken by the ICBF, others were sent to nearby villages and others were never seen again, according to organizations tracking the issue
Bangladesh to fund Rohingya education for first time as foreign donors pull back
- Funding shortfalls forced UNICEF to close thousands of schools in Rohingya refugee camps
- Rohingya are excluded from public schools in Bangladesh to prevent long-term integration
DHAKA: The Bangladeshi government will fund the primary education of Rohingya children living in refugee camps following the closure of thousands of UN-supported facilities due to budget shortages, authorities said on Wednesday.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were forced to flee a military crackdown in Myanmar and take shelter in neighboring Bangladesh in 2017. Today, more than 1 million of them are cramped inside 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar district on the country’s southeast coast. About half are children.
The Bangladeshi government does not allow Rohingya children to enroll in regular public schools outside the camps under its longstanding policy to prevent long‑term integration. Since the beginning of the crisis, Bangladesh, which is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, has made it clear that the Rohingya settlement is temporary.
Education has largely been organized by NGOs and UN agencies, providing basic literacy without recognized certificates. But many of these schools were forced to close last year, as foreign aid plunged — especially after the US, which contributed 55 percent of it, suspended most of its humanitarian operations.
To prevent the collapse of educational facilities, the Bangladeshi government on Tuesday for the first time approved state funding to keep them operational, with more than $16 million designated for primary education for Rohingya children under a World Bank grant.
“This World Bank funding will be used by UNICEF to operate learning centers in the Rohingya camps. As UNICEF is currently facing a severe funding shortage, the Bangladesh government has stepped in to provide support, with assistance from World Bank loans,” Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News.
“Due to the funding crisis, most learning centers in the camps have suspended operations. With this new funding, many of these centers will be able to resume activities. There are around 8,000 learning centers in the camps, of which only about 4,000 are currently operating, while the other half remain closed.”
There are more than 400,000 school-age Rohingya children in the Bangladesh refugee camps. The Bangladeshi government’s support will reach 200,000 of them, with the teaching program based on the national curriculum of their home country, Myanmar.
About 1,100 teachers will be employed and trained to work with the children, Rahman said.
“The government has approved the funding primarily for one year, but the program will continue until 2027. Revised negotiations may take place later to consider a further extension.”
