Kim Mailes, American Red Cross
In 1980 a young Cuban mother made a gut-wrenching decision. In the face of communist oppression, she fled to America with her three-year-old daughter seeking a better life. But an older brother was left behind in Cuba.
For the next forty-one years the girl had no contact with her brother.
Then, just a few weeks ago, American Red Cross volunteer Yasmine Toudji facilitated an amazing thing. She reconnected the sister and brother for the first time since they were separated in Cuba, and the two have been talking on the phone every day since.
The Red Cross Restoring Family Links (RFL) program reconnects families who have been separated internationally as a result of conflict, disaster, migration, or other humanitarian emergencies. The beginnings of the effort can be traced to 1870 when, during the Franco-Prussian War, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) obtained a list of French prisoners held by German forces and informed families of their status.
Yasmine became an RFL volunteer in August of 2020 and received the New and Outstanding Volunteer Award from the Missouri-Arkansas Region of the American Red Cross in 2021. Just twenty-two years old, she arrived in the United States from Algeria four years ago and is a biology student at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. Her native language is Berber, and she is fluent in French, Arabic, and English, and is conversant in Spanish. An internet search for a volunteer opportunity to utilize her skills to help others led her to the American Red Cross International Services page.
“I was excited to find an opportunity to help with something I feel passionate about,” she said. “Reuniting families separated by war or conflict, tracing missing family members, and meeting the emotional and psychological needs of the people affected is extremely fulfilling.”
The Missouri-Arkansas RFL team collaborates via email and in virtual meetings to assemble bits of information to reconnect families who have lost contact with each other. When an inquiry is submitted, the team receives notification from a special database known as FLANSWERS (Family Links Application for National Societies Worldwide Enquiry and RFL Services).
“FLANSWERS is our main tool,” Yasmine said, “but we have lots of guides available on the Red Cross Exchange web page, as well as monthly virtual forums where experienced RFL caseworkers help us navigate the system. The American Red Cross works alongside other international Red Cross and Red Crescent societies when searching for a missing person.”
Each case is different, and there are three lines of RFL service available for those seeking a missing person: Tracing; Family News; and Attestations and Documentation. When Yasmine receives notice of a new case, she contacts the inquirer seeking more information, like the circumstances that led to the separation and when they last had contact with the person. She then creates a tracing request and enters the information into FLANSWERS. The case is then forwarded to national Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C., which sends it to the appropriate national society (e.g. the Vietnam Red Cross Society if the missing person is believed to be in Vietnam). The process can take a few weeks or months, depending on several factors, and progress is noted in the FLANSWERS database. Yasmine’s last task in the process is to convey the results to the original inquirer before closing the case.
“The most difficult part of the job is telling an inquirer that the search was unsuccessful,” she said.
One open request that weighs heavy on her heart involves an Eritrean refugee here in the U.S. who lost contact with his family when they became refugees in Ethiopia during the Tigray conflict. By the time Yasmine took up the case and began gathering information to initiate the search, the inquirer heard that his family had been moved from the refugee camp in Ethiopia back to Eritrea. But the entire region had been forced into strict COVID-19 lockdown, and because ICRC could no longer move from village to village, the search was put on hold and remains unsolved.
“I stay engaged with the more challenging cases as long as required,” Yasmine said. “I try to stay in touch with the inquirer, even when there is no update, just to let them know they are not forgotten and that our team is doing all we can.”
Because the American Red Cross is involved in many relief efforts that receive greater publicity, a behind-the-scenes program like Restoring Family Links is easily overlooked. But to someone like the sister who now chats on the phone every day with her long-lost brother in Cuba, it’s the most important thing in the world.
Uniquely qualified and driven by a passion to help others, Yasmine Toudji never knows what part of a strife-filled world will command her attention next. The billions of people populating the globe can seem like a collection of sterile statistics. But to Yasmine, each is an important individual—a father or a mother, a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister—to those who love them. She is committed to restoring these lost connections and reassembling family units that have been torn apart by disaster or displaced by conflict.
Volunteers are always needed, and you can become part of the American Red Cross Restoring Family Links team. For more information, go to https://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/international-services/reconnecting-families.html
