The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched a new web page (http://familylinks.icrc.org/south-sudan) which enables thousands of people fleeing the violence in South Sudan to trace family members with whom they have lost contact.
South Sudan: Grace finds her mum
Grace Macon, a volunteer at the South Sudan Red Cross in Awerial County, describes how she first came in to contact with the Restoring Family Links service. Re-establishing contact with her mother, from whom she had been separated since the violence erupted in Bor, brought great joy to her life and motivated her to volunteer and help others find their lost friends and relatives.
“The web page will allow South Sudanese people living abroad in places like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and France, look for relatives displaced by the violence,” said the ICRC’s Marc Studer, who is heading the project.
Pix: Pawel Krzysiek
A group of people in Leer review a book containing photos of South Sudanese children located in the neighbouring countries
Photos of individuals are uploaded to the website. When visitors of the page recognize a photo of a close relative they can click on the picture and send a message. That message is then delivered by the ICRC or the national Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies to the person on the photo. “I hope the web page and its promotion on social media will help refugees and displaced people who are desperately searching for their families,” said Mr Studer.
Following the recent violence, hundreds of thousands of people left South Sudan and crossed into neighbouring Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan and Kenya. More than 1,600 photographs of displaced people have been taken in refugee camps in Gambella, Ethiopia, and in Juba, South Sudan. The pictures, of adults and unaccompanied children, were taken by the Ethiopian Red Cross and the South Sudan Red Cross, supported by the ICRC.
The photographs were originally put into so-called ‘snapshot books’ and, in January and February this year, shown in camps and other places in South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. “Thanks to the snapshot books, we are happy to have been able to make around 150 matches so far,” said Dalila Romdhane, the ICRC official in charge of the work in South Sudan. Now the plan is to widen the reach of this initiative, with the launch of the web page.
Since the beginning of the crisis in December 2013, the ICRC and the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the region have been very active in restoring family links among the refugees. More than 68,000 phone calls have been facilitated, almost 2,000 messages distributed and 400 tracing requests opened.