By Emily Bartlett, American Red Cross volunteer

In our world of digital communication, it’s easy to assume that you could always find the people who matter to you, wherever they might go. But even today, crises can split societies and cause social networks to crumble. Individuals and families find themselves separated and overwhelmed by uncertainty that feels impossible to deal with alone.

The Red Cross Restoring Family Links (RFL) program helps people who have been affected by war, civil conflict, migration, and natural disasters to locate and connect with their missing family members in the United States and abroad. For more than one hundred years, Red Cross employees and volunteers have helped countless relatives reunite and repair their most important connections.

In 2025-26, the Red Cross Southern California Region has a goal to reach 4,000 people and spread the word about the Restoring Family Links program. This increase from recent years is proportionate to the growing need for these services in Southern California. Outreach activities include spreading awareness of the program among communities and those who may need services, working with other organizations who can amplify offerings, and enlisting volunteers who are crucial to the program’s success.

A surge in need- and potential impact

Amy Ramirez, Regional Program Manager for Service to the Armed Forces and International Services for the American Red Cross Southern California Region, has overseen the RFL program in Orange, Imperial, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties since 2019. “What I want the public to know is that just spreading the information about this program could potentially get to that one person who needs to hear it and change their whole life,” she explained.

Even though years pass, conflicts are resolved, and people begin to rebuild their lives, the echoes of separation–from family members and personal history–remain.

“I worked with a volunteer and was there when he actually reconnected with his family through the program. Seeing that made it mean that much more to me,” says Ramirez. “I remember he hosted a call where he shared his story and everybody was crying. It was an incredible experience. And ever since then, it's been my mission to make sure that we as a region put 100% into this program to help reconnect these families and locate these missing family members.”

Christina Gosling, a Senior Volunteer Recruitment Specialist in Orange County who also volunteers for the RFL program, emphasized the importance of reconnecting family members who have been separated by forces beyond their control. “Those are the ones you love and who are always there when you need something,” she said. “We help to relieve that strain and pressure, that weight of not knowing whether they're alive. I think that's the most important thing about this program.”

“It's not just one generation we're targeting, we're targeting multiple generations,” explained Ramirez. “Think about a migrant family, as an example. It could be the original migrant, or the generations after that that are impacted by the family being separated. Let's say I came into this country as a migrant, and then I had a daughter, but my husband and I were separated. Eventually, my child might want to find and reconnect with her father. Just because my daughter's not a migrant doesn't mean that she couldn't be impacted by this service as well.”

A “full circle” story with Red Cross RFL

Laura Nguyen has experienced what she calls a “full circle story” with the Red Cross. She first began volunteering as a teenager, and over decades has worked with the organization as a Team Supervisor Registered Nurse at mobile blood collections operations in Southern California. She has served as a board member with the Red Cross of Orange County for five years and participated in several committees dedicated to diversity, outreach, government relations, youth development, and more.

But Nguyen’s earliest interactions with the organization predate her career. In 1975, her family arrived in the U.S. as refugees from the Vietnam War. As a result of the chaos, some of her family members were separated. Fortunately, her father and his brother were later reunited with help from Red Cross volunteers and the RFL program.

Looking back on her experiences, she sees not just a series of events, but interconnected networks of volunteers and coworkers who have become a second family and kept her committed to giving back. To the individuals who helped her, her parents, and siblings after their arrival in the U.S., to the connections she has made in her professional life, she feels immense gratitude. “I feel like the Red Cross found me twice,” she explained. “My hope is to help other families like they have done for me, and to also to help support International Services by sharing my story and reconnecting more families.”

Nguyen has shared her family’s story in a news story, as a Tiffany Circle Event speaker and as a military naval base speaker at Asian Pacific Islander month. She explained the importance the Red Cross, connected programs, and family restoration has played in her life.

“I was an infant, approximately 8 months old, when we arrived at the Fort Chaffee, Arkansas military base. The military helped by providing essential support for the settlement, including housing, education, and medical care, plus much more, offering safety and happiness during the most difficult time of our lives. As an adult, I was able to use Red Cross networks to learn that First United Methodist Church sponsors Paul, Leonard, and Eleanor Louise Rudd Calvert – in coordination with Red Cross volunteers Audrey Gordon and Jeanne Yeager – helped us for four years until we moved to California. I am so thankful that I was able to reconnect with Miss Calvert and her family after 46 years, and now I have gained another mom and a new family. If the Red Cross hadn’t found me for my Team Supervisor Registered Nurse job, I never would have learned my history, and connected with the families that helped my family.”

Volunteering with the Restoring Family Links program

In order to serve populations that are at risk for family separation, the Red Cross is in need of volunteers who can build connections within communities. In particular, Arabic and Spanish speakers are able to help recipients of program services in Southern California. Volunteers attend meetings, hand out flyers, make phone calls, and help piece together the fragments of information that can lead to answers or even reunification. The effort spans continents– the Red Cross works with international organizations including the International Red Cross and Red Crescent and Missing Persons Global Response– to locate missing family members across the globe.

Gosling encouraged people to consider their own reasons for getting involved.

“I'm really passionate about helping this community. I'm an immigrant to this country myself - I'm from Canada. My husband is also an immigrant. He's from Palestine and everybody I know and I love are immigrants. And so that is really what's driving me to volunteer in this space,” she said.

The Red Cross also connects its clients with caseworkers and other organizations to maximize the program’s chances of reconnecting families as much as possible.

U.S. Army Veteran and Regional Program Manager in the Red Cross Southern California Region Raul Diaz recounted what it felt like to contribute to family reunification.

The most valuable thing you can do to help is simply to be available, he said. “Once, one of our partner organizations reached out to see whether I could schedule some time to confirm an address and possibly conduct an interview. It happened that I was on the road that very instant, and not too far from the location we wanted to confirm. After just a few hours, I managed to find our client's sister, whom he had not heard from for a substantial time. We informed her that she had a brother looking for her in Europe. Had I not been ready, willing and able, that breakthrough in the case might never have happened.”

Diaz wants prospective participants in the program to feel comfortable and secure about reaching out. “Anyone can start a case inquiry for assessment and this service is 100% free.”

For those interested in volunteering with the RFL program, there are a variety of opportunities to be involved. No experience is necessary, and all training is provided by the Red Cross.

Find a family member with the Restoring Family Links program

Armed conflict, international disasters and migration leave millions of people around the globe in urgent need of humanitarian assistance every year. As the world's largest humanitarian network, Red Cross and Red Crescent teams help reconnect families separated by international crises Restoring Family Links (RFL) provides free and confidential services to help families reconnect.

If you are looking for a family member or know someone who is, there is help available from the Red Cross today.

• Contact your local Red Cross chapter– the critical link in your community to the vast network of the global Red Cross Red Crescent network
• Call the free Restoring Family Links national helpline at 1-844-782-9441.
• Fill out the International Reconnecting Families Inquiry Form
  
  

You can help

To participate in the reunification of families, become a Red Cross volunteer. The Restoring Family Links program is funded in part by donations to Red Cross International Services. Volunteerism and financial donations help the Red Cross continue to be there for families in need across the U.S. and around the world.