Red Cross Blogs

A day to remember the Disappeared

By Mark Cox
August 30, 2011 at 10:39 am

It’s easy to take our families for granted – most of us have a tale to tell about an annoying sibling, a dozy dad, a nit-picking mum. But just imagine how horrible it would be to be suddenly separated from someone you loved, just like that, and be left not knowing where they were nor even if they were still alive.

That’s the tragic situation facing thousands of families across the world whose family members are missing due to conflict. And that’s why the Red Cross will join people across the world to remember missing loved ones on this year’s International Day of the Disappeared (30 August).

When families are separated by war or disaster, our international tracing and message services work through a global network to put them back in touch. We help hundreds of people each year: people such as Rose Healey, who contacted the Red Cross two years ago looking for help to find her family.

Rose had been evacuated from France during the Second World War and lost touch with her older sister, who later died. Many years later, she experienced a flood of memories – some quite horrific – from her time in war-torn France. These feelings prompted a desire to look for her sister’s two daughters, probably her only family still living in France.

When a friend suggested the Red Cross might help, she thought: “Why didn’t I think of that before? During the war, we came over to England in a Red Cross boat; the Red Cross also dressed and kept us alive in the camp with food parcels. Their help meant everything to us at the time – so I got in touch to see if they could help me again.”

Rose had very little information about her nieces; just their birthplace, their ages and their names at birth. It didn’t seem enough so she could only wait and hope. But just a year later, the Red Cross got in touch to say her niece Michelle had been traced by the French Red Cross.

Rose recalls: “When the Red Cross rang, I burst into tears. They gave me my niece’s number but I couldn’t pick up the phone for two hours because I was crying so much. Finally, I calmed down and rang. When Michelle came on the phone she just said: ‘Ma tante Rose’.”

Now the pair speak every month, Rose is also in regular contact with Michelle’s daughter and they have all exchanged many letters and photographs.

Rose said: “This has meant so much to me, and to my niece and her family. The Red Cross have helped me many times in my life – I cannot thank them enough.”

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Tags: international tracing and message service

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