Restoring Family Links
 

The chaos and confusion that accompany war and disaster can separate families when they need each other most. When this happens, the Red Cross joins the search across international borders, offering a unique service that allows families to reconnect.

What We Do

American Red Cross caseworkers at local chapters around the U.S. help families locate missing relatives by working with our partners—the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations in nearly every country around the world.

Once a family member is found, the Red Cross helps them reconnect. Messages can be very brief, but the three short words “I am alive” may be all that is needed to ease the minds of distraught relatives half a world away. Red Cross messages can also be exchanged between families and their loved ones in refugee camps and detention
centers to allow them to keep in contact and share family news.

This past year, the American Red Cross helped reconnect more than 860 families—bridging years of separation to renew critical links between new communities in the U.S. and their families around the world.

The Red Cross accepts tracing cases and traces sought persons when:

• Families have been separated as a result of either armed conflict or disaster.
• As much as possible, families should have tried normal channels of communication before requesting Red Cross tracing services.
• The family member making the inquiry provides essential information on the sought person.
• The family member making the inquiry is a close family relative, who has been in direct contact with the sought person before the conflict or disaster occurred.

The Red Cross cannot accept requests when there is insufficient information to conduct a search; or when it is for genealogical research; or tracing regarding legal matters such as wills, child custody etc.; or the tracing of birth parents or third party requests.