Red Cross reunites families in Rwanda
TRACING SERVICE "Helping Reunite Families"
The genocide and war in Rwanda has left thousands of Rwandan children separated from their families. During periods of chaotic mass population movement or conflict, a child's tiny hand is often released from a parent's for only a moment, resulting in months or years of separation.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) works to reunite families in Rwanda and many other countries. In 1994, the ICRC began its tracing and reunification work for unaccompanied children in Rwanda. More than 47,000 Rwandan children have been reunited with their families, but there still remains many unsolved cases.
In 1997, Sue Pfisterer, a Canadian Red Cross delegate based in Gikongoro, Rwanda worked with an eight member team, coordinating tracing and reunification in the area. A recent day's work for Sue involved reuniting four children with their families.
The tracing and reunification work in Rwanda is but a small piece of the ICRC's work in this area. From January 1995 to June 1996, the ICRC forwarded 4,630,145 messages, reunited 15,175 families and traced 20,955 people.
