Tsunami survivor reunited with family after ten years
- 10 years ago
A 14-year-old Indonesian girl has been reunited with her family ten years after being given up for dead in the 2004 tsunami.
Raudhatul Jannah was separated from her family when flood water inundated their home in Meulaboh in the mainly Muslim Aceh province.
She says she floated on a plank with her brother and was later picked up from the water. Her brother, however, was no-where to be seen.
She was found nearly 130 kilometres away south
and raised by an elderly woman whom the family has invited to come and live with them.
“As a mother I know how that feels, they have been living together for ten years and I can’t just separate them I need to care about how they feel,” said Raudhatul’s mother Jamaliah.
The family has no plan to conduct a DNA test to verify her identity as they are sure she is the daughter they lost, based on her childhood photos.
Aceh was the closest point to the epicentre of the Indian Ocean tsunami where at least 170, 000 were killed.
Raudhatul Jannah was separated from her family when flood water inundated their home in Meulaboh in the mainly Muslim Aceh province.
She says she floated on a plank with her brother and was later picked up from the water. Her brother, however, was no-where to be seen.
She was found nearly 130 kilometres away south
and raised by an elderly woman whom the family has invited to come and live with them.
“As a mother I know how that feels, they have been living together for ten years and I can’t just separate them I need to care about how they feel,” said Raudhatul’s mother Jamaliah.
The family has no plan to conduct a DNA test to verify her identity as they are sure she is the daughter they lost, based on her childhood photos.
Aceh was the closest point to the epicentre of the Indian Ocean tsunami where at least 170, 000 were killed.