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UmHani: Preventing and Surviving International Child Abduction

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Hani's Advice for the Left-Behind Parent: Coming Soon

Hani and his sister reunited with their mother

Kristine Uhlman, Hani Ukayli, and Maisoon Ukayli, Manama, Bahrain, 2004

Kidnapped at the age of 2, Hani returned to the United States in July of 1997 and reunited with his left-behind family. It is important to make every effort to maintain contact with an abducted child, and this can often be accomplished by working with the government of the country in which the child is held. Although I had limited contacts with my children in Saudi Arabia, those visits gave Hani the incentive to connect with me so many years later.

Hani is working on an essay offering the parent of an abducted child advice on how to survive and maintain contact with the vanished child, based on his perspective of being taken from his own mother at a young age.