07 May 2001 -- Netaid.org, a joint initiative by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Cisco Systems Inc., has announced the launch of a programme to help trace and reunify children separated from their families by armed conflict in Guinea, Republic of the Congo and East Timor.

Netaid.org said the "Bringing Children Home" programme would seek to provide some 3,000 children in the three countries with basic protection as well as trauma counselling, education and other assistance to help them reintegrate themselves into their families and communities. "Our goal is to reinforce current efforts to locate and care for these children, and to trace their families and reunite them as quickly as possible," said David Morrison, President of the Netaid.org Foundation. "Some of these children have been separated from the love and security of their homes for years. And many of these boys and girls have been abused and exploited."

"Although this programme is able to reach just a small number of extremely vulnerable children, we hope to show that focused attention and support rallied over the Internet can help them to rebuild their lives," said Morrison, who announced that Netaid would match contributions for the protection, tracing, and reunification of the children, "dollar for dollar."

 

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Not an official document of the United Nations. Maintained by the Peace and Security Section of the Department of Public Information in cooperation with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. (c) United Nations 2001