Red Cross International Services: Finding Answers and Delivering Them

by George McCain, volunteer contributor 

People often seek answers, sometimes to the most profound questions in life. Sometimes people simply need an answer to a question, not profound but nonetheless deeply meaningful.  Colin Wood is a volunteer with the American Red Cross who helps bring answers to those asking some of the most important questions in life, like “Where is my family and are they alive?” Wood is a Volunteer Partner with ARC International Services. The University of North Texas student, majoring in International Studies, works on a daily basis reconnecting families who have been separated due to armed conflict, natural disaster or migration.  

"The Red Cross and Red Crescent are the only organizations that do this specifically," Wood said.  

Annually, the Red Cross assists more than 5,000 people reconnect with loved ones in the United States and around the world. "People may find themselves in a refugee situation such as a camp after fleeing armed conflict or a disaster," Wood added. The UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, facilitates refugees settling around the world including the United States.  Refugees need help in finding and connecting with loved ones.

Restoring Family Links (RFL) is the program whereby the Red Cross helps people get back in touch with families. Local Red Cross volunteers accomplish this by working with the Red Cross in other countries to effectively reconnect clients with their families. The Red Cross provides RFL services in three ways: 

• Tracing which helps find families and get word to them
• Red Cross Messages whereby the Red Cross or Red Crescent, independent of the government, delivers a message written by a family member
• Holocaust Tracing helping holocaust victims find family

Wood says volunteering with Red Cross International Services is fulfilling. “I am a part of so many cogs that have to move to make it work.” Helping people who have gone through horrifying experiences and seek closure through answered questions provides him with that sense of fulfillment.

“The movement is going to do so much good and provide that answer they haven’t been able to get.”

To learn more about our Red Cross International Services Restoring Family Links program, or to become a volunteer, visit us online at redcross.org. Watch a video of a reconnection made possible by RFL:

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Red Cross Connects Cousins – 76 Years Later

Elizabeth "Lily" Farkas was one of millions of people separated from her family amid the chaos and confusion of World War II. But thanks to a Red Cross search across international borders, she and a cousin connected after many decades.

Lily, who now lives in Sarasota, was a teenager in Hungary during the war, and recalled those as "God awful" times.

In 1945, the Russians came in to liberate Hungary from the Nazis, but when the Communists took over in 1949, liberation became domination and the Hungarian government was subordinate to Soviet control.

Hungarian students began demonstrating against the Communist government in 1956 but the Soviets sent in tanks and troops and defeated the Hungarian freedom fighters.Thousands of people died, more than 26,000 were put on trial, about 13,000 were imprisoned and about 300 were executed. Nearly 200,000 refugees escaped into Austria or Yugoslavia and eventually started new lives in other parts of the world.

Lily participated in the Hungarian Revolution and worked underground. She served 2 1/2 years as a political prisoner in Budapest and a prison in northeastern Hungary. Her husband, Imre, was sentenced to death but his sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

In 1956 Imre and other prisoners broke out of an infamous political prison in Vac, Hungary, three days after the revolution started. Imre and Lily were reunited in Budapest and arrived in the United States on Christmas Eve 1956. They have since had two daughters and three grandchildren who live in Holland.

Although Mrs. Farkas lost touch with her family in Hungary, a second cousin – Judit Bojthy Hajda – contacted the Red Cross to help locate her long lost relative after 76 years.

Cindy Desmond, Director of Volunteers, Client Services and Training for the Southwest Florida Chapter of the American Red Cross, spoke with Lily to inform her that her second cousin wanted to connect with her. Red Cross family tracing services help reconnect families who have been separated internationally by war and natural disasters.

"At first, Lily was hesitant," said Cindy. "Then the memories started to come back."

Now Lily corresponds with her second cousin, talking on the phone and sending photos to each other over the internet.

There are American Red Cross caseworkers at local chapters around the United States helping families locate missing relatives by working with 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. In the past year, the American Red Cross helped reconnect more than 4,200 families – bridging years of separation to renew critical links between new communities in the U.S. and their families around the world.

Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center
Holocaust Tracing, Family Searches and Wartime Documentation

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