Restoring Family Links
Restoring Family Links
Restoring Family Links alleviates the suffering of family members separated by armed conflict or disaster worldwide. Free of charge, this service gives families a way to restore contact. Restoring Family Links services include:
- Family Tracing and Location Services
- Red Cross Messages
- Health and Welfare Inquires
- Disaster Welfare Inquires
- ICRC Travel Documents
- Information and Refe
rral Services
American Red Cross International Family Tracing Services accepts tracing cases 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.
“I Am Alive”
The family messages transmitted by the Red Cross can be very brief, but the three short words “I am alive” may be all that is needed to ease the minds of distraught loved ones half a world away.
Armed conflict and natural disaster leave millions of people around the globe in urgent need of humanitarian assistance every year. Adding to the physical losses, the confusion and chaos surrounding war and natural disasters often separates families when they need each other most. Tragically, when families and loved ones are separated by war or disaster, their suffering is greater. But, through the strength of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent network and the assistance of local tracing volunteers around the world families reconnect.
Holocaust & War Victims Tracing Center
The mission of Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Service is to help alleviate the emotional, spiritual and psychological distress of survivors and their families by providing them with humanitarian tracing, reunification and certification services, and information about missing loved ones. Holocaust survivors can search – for themselves or family me
mbers – for proof of:
- Internment
- Forced and slave labor
- Deportation, evacuation or dislocation from occupied regions.
The Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Service uses the combined resources from a worldwide network of national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, the Magen David Adom and approximately 900 chapters throughout the United States, as well as countless museums, archives and organizations around the world.
News: Bringing Closure to the Survivors of a Survivor
The American 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.
To begin a search, call (626) 407-4536
Tracing Requests for the following countries are being accepted for active emergencies (as of 2/2012):
- Philippines
- Colombia
- Thailand
- Somalia
- Ethiopia
- Kenya
- Sudan
- Haiti
- Libya
Learn more about:
