JEDDAH, 1 January 2008 — Amal Acub, the one-year-and-seven-month-old Filipino girl who went missing on Thursday, was reunited with her parents yesterday, Arab News learned.
Amenodin Guiwa, a relative of the Acubs, said the girl’s worried parents got a call at 1 a.m. yesterday from an Indonesian couple who said they had with them a toddler, who fit the description of the missing child as published in Arab News.
Abdullah Acub and his wife Farida wasted no time in going to the Indonesian couple’s apartment not far from Jeddah’s downtown Balad district and there they saw a beaming Amal, apparently unfazed by what happened.
Guiwa quoted the Indonesian couple as saying they chanced upon unescorted Amal at the gold souq in Balad at about the same time she was separated from her parents at about 9 p.m. last Thursday.
Sensing that she was lost, they took custody of her and waited in the market for anyone looking for her. After two hours of a futile wait, they decided to take the child home and find out the next day whoever was looking for a child.
“Thanks to Allah, the child was taken care of by good people,” Guiwa told Arab News by phone.
In a text message, the Acub family said: “Thanks to all our brothers and sisters who offered help and prayers. Young girl Amal was found safe and sound today.”
