Editorial: Children adopted during the Genocide deserve to know their roots

Good news resounded this week in Nyamata. There was an emotional family reunion when a daughter, long thought dead, returned home 23 years later. Jeannette Chiapello was only two years old at the height of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Her mother took her and some of her siblings to seek refuge at Ntarama Church. Jeannette was the only one who miraculously got out of the church alive and some Good Samaritan took her to a nearby orphanage. It was the last time the family heard any news from her as the orphans were soon airlifted to Italy and adopted. It was the tireless efforts of her brother who never gave up looking for his long lost sister that kept the fire burning. He was convinced that she was out there and patience paid off. A DNA test finally decided that matter and a tearful reunion took place this week. There are hundreds of Jeannettes who were evacuated to Italy and other countries, commendable humanitarian efforts to say the least. But uprooting the children for good was not part of the deal. Many parents are not as lucky as the one in Nyamata and very few will find closure. Despite efforts by the government – that have been going on for the last two decades – to repatriate the children, all that it has managed to do is hit a brick wall. While the foster parents could have been trying to shield the children from further trauma and confusion, today the former children are young adults, some with families of their own. It would be wrong to deny them their right to reconnect with their biological relatives. Let there be a DNA data bank of parents who lost trace of their children and try to match it with the former orphans who were evacuated in 1994. One can never know how many lives will be touched and changed by that simple gesture.

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Editorial: Children adopted during the Genocide deserve to know their roots