Helping Chile’s stolen children
How a small NGO in Chile is helping people trace their birth families using DNA and other techniques, after thousands were separated during the Pinochet regime of the 70s and 80s.
During the 1970s and 80s, thousands of Chilean babies were illegally kidnapped, trafficked and adopted. The practice was widespread during the rule of General Augusto Pinochet. A network of adoption brokers, hospital staff, social workers, judges, priests and nuns facilitated this trafficking.
Today many of Chile’s ‘stolen children’ are trying to trace their birth families - and their mothers are also looking for them. Hundreds of them have been successfully reunited with the help of a small Santiago-based NGO called Nos Buscamos. Using DNA testing kits, and a range of other techniques and technologies, they help track down families separated for decades. We meet Constanza del Rio - the founder of the project - and hear from the families they’ve helped to bring back together.
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Presenter: Myra Anubi
Reporter: Jane Chambers
Producer: Viv Jones
Editor: Jon Bithrey
Sound mix: Hal Haines
(Image: Jimmy Thyden-Lippert González embraces his mother Maria Angelica González, credit: Nos Buscamos)
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