At the relief camp established at Satbise of Nuwakot district, children displaced by the recent earthquake are to be found having a merry time. But these children, who were trying to forget the trauma of the quake, have also started to disappear.

Satbise Camp shelters the quake-displaced of Haku-9 VDC, Rasuwa district. Nine-year-old Gurumaya Tamang, who had been living at the camp with her father and grandmother, has not been seen there since June 8. "They said they were taking her to Kathmandu but we don't know where exactly" said Gurumaya's father Kaman Singh Tamang. "We send her away in hopes that she would have a brighter future. They said they would provide her schooling. We get phone calls from time to time saying that she is doing fine, but then we don't really know."

A 15-member team from the Korean Christian Association had arrived a month ago with the stated intention of providing the displaced victims food and clothing. The team said they would take the children to Kathmandu and look after them. "They took the kids and have not returned since" said a local. Along with Gurumaya, the organization had taken other two children -- Rupmaya and Kanchimaya -- from the camp.

Volunteers from the organisation would cultivate the chldren with offers of juice and chocolates. They managed to take the three children away without completing the necessary administrative or legal procedures.

"There were 15 kids here and they tried coaxing them all away. But the families of only the three girls agreed," said Karma Tamang of Haku-9. Dawa Singh Tamang, father of 13-year-old Rupmaya, said "The organization asked me to put down my fingerprint and I obliged. They left with my daughter, saying they'd make her a big person and send her back some day."

Mangali Ghale, mother of one and half-.year-old Kanchimaya, the third child, said, "We are destitute and they promised to take care of her and educate her at their organization near Nakkhu in the capital."

The compulsion of the families sending away their children is poverty and the yearning for a better future for them. But even with the consent of the parents, there are procedures to be followed.

"No matter which organization or individual is involved, it's illegal," said Deputy Chief District Officer of Rasuwa, Gautam Rimal. "The appoval of the VDC or District Children Welfare Council has not been sought.

Police deployed at the camp for security, however, seemed ignorant of the matter. "There's a duty rotation every 15 days, and so we don't know anything about the Koreans taking away children," an officer on duty said. He added that there were many organizations visiting the camp and they had no idea about their activities.

The kids were taken to Kathmandu by the team along with some individuals from the camp itself. But the police team did not get any whiff of it.

The Korean organization has taken five children from Haku and Danda Gaun alone, according to Om Singh Tamang, a shelter seeker at the camp. "Even today the oraganisation calls us up asking us to send more children. But the parents don't agree," he said.

"No permission has been provided to any organization or individual to take children away to purportedly feed them or take care of them" said Bhagwati Poudel of Rasuwa District Children Welfare Committee . She said that if children require to be taken anywhere the approval of the VDC office and the district administration office is needed. Without such approval it will be taken as an act of child trafficking, she added.

Published on: 3 July 2015 | Republica