Finding Protegee and Reponse

Esperance Nirakagori holds her granddaughter, Reponse; her daughter, Protegee, sits at right in their hut in the east Congo village of Kiseguru, some 20 kms from Kiwanja, after being reunited for the second time, Monday, Nov. 17, 2008. UNICEF says hundreds of children have been separated from their families since fighting flared in eastern Congo in August, and that more than 1,600 children in the province were seeking their parents last week. On Nov. 6, Protegee was photographed carrying her niece, Response, and crying as she searched for her mother in eastern Congo.

In this Nov. 6, 2008 file photo, Protegee carries her niece, Response, left, as she looks for her parents in the village of Kiwanja, 90 kms north of Goma, eastern Congo. When photographed on Nov. 6, Protegee was in a crowd of thousands in the town of Kiwanja, having walked for three days by herself after being separated from her mother as they fled on foot from her town about 12 miles (20 kilometers) away. Protegee finally found her mother, Esperance Nirakagori, in Kiwanja at a makeshift refugee camp six days after they were separated.