When the US resettlement program began in 1999, one requirement was that the children must be orphaned. Because these girls had been living within a family unit for anywhere from 9–14 years, they were no longer considered orphans, and therefore were ineligible for the resettlement program. As a result, relatively few of the Lost Girls were able to benefit from the resettlement program to the US.[1] Of the 4,000 Sudanese refugees approved in 2000, only 89 were women.[2]