Red Cross Blogs

International Missing Children’s Day: finding hope

By Sarah Oughton
May 25, 2011 at 10:46 am

Even if you don’t have children of your own it’s not hard to imagine the anguish of a parent whose child has gone missing. Unfortunately this is the heartache hundreds of thousands of people face in the UK and around the world every year.

International Missing Children’s Day, 25 May, is about standing in solidarity and hope with the families of missing children as the search to find them goes on.

Today, Stephen Fry,  Victoria Beckham and Lorraine Kelly are supporting Missing People’s the Big Tweet in an effort to find missing children by retweeting appeals. The charity will be tweeting an appeal for a different missing child every 30 minutes for 24 hours on its official Twitter account.

For more than 100 years, the Red Cross has also been helping people find loved ones they have been separated from because of conflict or disaster. It works through a global network to put families back in touch – wherever they are.

Recently, I visited Liberia where around 180,000 people have sought refuge after fleeing violence in the Ivory Coast. I heard many stories about how when fighting engulfed people’s villages people were running for their lives and amidst the chaos and fear many were separated from their families.

Life as a refugee is tough at the best of times, but it must be so much worse when you are alone without your family.

I met Guei, 24, when she had literally just arrived in Liberia after a two-week gruelling journey through the equatorial jungle. She was pretty shell-shocked when she told me what had happened. Guei’s village had been attacked and as everyone scattered she was separated from her family but as she fled she found a toddler lost in the turmoil.

A Red Cross volunteer came and greeted Guei and explained about the Red Cross tracing programme and they registered the child.

Volunteers are now trying to find the child’s family.

For those with missing children, today will be tough, but probably no tougher than any other day they spend waiting for news of their child.

So today is also an opportunity to keep hope alive for those still waiting, by celebrating the many children that have been found.

When Almaz Berhanu Yesbasa fled her home in Ethiopia in fear of her life, leaving behind her husband and four daughters, she didn’t know if she’d ever see them again.

Almaz said: “At first I was worried about giving information about my family, but the Red Cross was very helpful. They explained they only share the details with other Red Cross people and no one else. But I still never thought I would get to meet my daughters again.”

Fortunately, Almaz was wrong.

Read Almaz’s story and find out how the Red Cross helped her find her daughters.

Images © Sarah Oughton/BRC

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Tags: displaced people, ethiopia, finding missing people, IMCD, International Missing Children's Day, international tracing and message service, itms, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Red Cross messages, refugees, tracing services

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 at 10:46 am and is filed under International, News, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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