JEDDAH, 15 October 2006 — It is usually kids that go missing, but this time it is the parents. Eight months have passed since three-year-old Fatima was found in a commercial area in the Saudi capital but still her parents are nowhere to be found.
Authorities and do-gooders have been trying to locate Fatima’s parents or any one who has any information on her real identity.
When first found in the Hijab Souq in Riyadh’s Al-Malaz district, the girl was too young to speak and she had no identification papers. The young girl’s case started to grow more complicated when police found no missing person’s case filed in any of the Riyadh police precincts fitting her description.
The girl, who has been given the name Fatima, is in the custody of the Al-Nahda charity organization, where she spent her first six months away from home.
“Whenever she picks up one of our cell phones to play with she calls out ‘Papa, Papa,’” said an Al-Nahda worker who did not want to be identified. “It is very sad. We all pray for her to be reunited with her family.”
An e-mail began circulating when Fatima was found, and hundreds and hundreds of calls were received from all over world, including adoption offers, but nobody provided clues about the parents’ whereabouts.
