Red Cross Blogs

Jose’s story: a message of hope

By Sarah Oughton
August 28, 2009 at 12:02 pm

For political reasons, Jose Mputu was forced to flee the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. He came to the UK as a refugee, but had to leave behind his wife and eight children. As fighting in the Congo escalated, the Red Cross supported Jose through the trauma of losing contact with his family and helped him to find them again. Listen to his story.

Jose’s story: a message of hope

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Sarah: Have you ever called and called a loved one but they just don’t answer the phone? There’s no reasonable explanation for their silence and you’re convinced something terrible has happened.

For most of us this is just a short lived panic, but for others losing contact with their family becomes a living nightmare. Imagine not knowing if your family is alive or dead, or how you will ever find them.

The British Red Cross tracing and message service is part of a global Red Cross network, which searches for missing family members and puts them back in touch when they have been separated due to conflict or disaster.

I’m Sarah Oughton, international writer at the British Red Cross and this is the story of Jose Mputu, who, for political reasons, was forced to flee the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. He came to the UK as a refugee, but had to leave behind his wife and eight children.

Jose: First of all, I had a very happy life with my family. We were very close and I didn’t used to go out. I was after my occupation, come back home, stay with my wife, children, talk about the life, education, project everything. But suddenly I was obliged to leave, leave them.

But it was uncommon for me because, you know you are close in family and suddenly you’re out, living alone, in fear for yourself, for them, and I was very disturbed and I was having some nightmare about my family, about my future.

Sarah: During this time, Jose was watching the conflict in the Congo unfold on the TV. He saw people were fleeing all over the place, some were being killed and he knew anything could have happened to his family. He was very disturbed and sought help from his GP.

Jose: I have some mental trouble. I went here to see my GP and he referred me to a psychiatrist, a community one, taking care for people in the community. And then he prescribed me a high level of medicine, about post-traumatic trouble, disorder. I was taking these medicines.

But many times at night I couldn’t sleep quietly, thinking a lot, about my family, because, you know my family is my life. In Africa, family is your life, is your future, your children is your future. Now I was in conflict, between myself and my situation.

Sarah: When the medications didn’t help him, Jose returned to his GP who told him he needed emotional support.

Jose: For Red Cross I heard from my friend that there’s a service here about asylum seeker that can help about clothing because I didn’t have anything. I was coming here as a beneficiary. I saw that the service is very helpful. I started coming very regularly. Sometimes to play with friends. It was making me a little bit happy when I am meeting people who are friendly. You make a new life and I applied to become a volunteer.

One day I saw this leaflet about separated families. I started reading it. And I saw that there is enough information for…because I’m concerned, I’m in this case as well. I have lost contact with my family and I can contact this service to find out how can they help me about, to renew contact with my family.

Now, I seek advice from Francis and Edward. I have read a leaflet about separated people, how can I do. And they said, yes you have to find a complete address. Now you have to write a letter in a Red Cross form, official form, but you can’t write about political issue only family news, because we are a neutral organisation.

So okay I wrote the message, I gave it to Edward and he sent. I ask him, how long will it take? Because I’m not comfortable, I need to hear something from them. He said, I don’t know maybe one month, two months. So okay at least I have written something, I was waiting for.

One day, Edward phoned me. “You know Jose, I have received a reply from your wife.”

Oh my God, it was that the most good information I have received this day. When I saw the message I saw the handwriting of my wife. I know, it was very wonderful, because it is the most wonderful thing I have received today. And my wife wrote something inside. A message for hope. And I grabbed, I hold the letter in my hand, it was like I am kissing her. I said, oh my God. God you’re wonderful! Because I didn’t believe it was coming to me.

Sarah: A Red Cross message is an open letter containing family news. During a conflict, the neutrality of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement means we are able to pass these messages across borders and conflict lines when other forms of communication are not working.

Our ability to deliver messages depends on the information you can provide and local circumstances, including the security situation, in the relevant country.

If you would like to send a Red Cross message to your family, please contact your local Red Cross office.

For further information visit redcross.org.uk/trace

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Tags: audio, day of the disappeared, International Day of the Disappeared, podcast

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