NEWSLETTER Jon Bjorgvinson/ICRC ICRC – FEBRUARY 2009 FAMILY LINKS NETWORK

In this issue, you can read about how the Indian Red Cross Society and the Society are working THOUSANDS SEPARATED to re-connect families in two very different contexts. While the former is IN BIHAR FLOOD responding to sudden family separations caused by disasters, the latter is covering migrants’ needs to restore family links. In August 2008, television screens around Because roads and bridges were destroyed the world broadcast images of the suffering by the flooding, boats and helicopters were It is well over a year since the Restoring caused by the devastating floods in the used to rescue the flood victims. It was a lo- Family Links (RFL) Strategy for the Move- state of Bihar in . They showed peo­ gistical challenge that resulted in more fami- ment was adopted by the Council of Dele- ple awaiting rescue on rooftops, wading lies becoming separated. Rescue boats gates. Since then a number of positive through neck-high water, or receiving as- collected women and children first and took steps have been taken by National Socie- sistance in crowded camps. Men, women them to relief camps. Men were rescued at a ties to improve their RFL services for sepa- and children were enduring one of the later stage. Not only were they often taken rated families. worst natural disasters to hit the region in to camps other than the ones where their The active involvement of the Movement many years. families were sheltering, they also had no will be crucial to the development of the Several rivers weave their way through means of getting in touch with their rela- tracing services of National Societies, trac- Bihar, one of the poorest states in India. tives. More than 400 camps were established ing agencies in ICRC delegations and the When a major breach, about two kilome- to take in approximately 450,000 people. Central Tracing Agency at ICRC’s head- tres long, occurred in the Kosi river em- quarters, which together form the Family bankment, most people were unprepared For people already traumatized by the Links Network. for the consequences. widespread devastation, losing contact The aim of this newsletter is to give an More than 3.7 million litres of water burst- with loved ones caused additional an- update on the work to improve the Move- ing through the river’s banks flooded guish. The Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) ment’s RFL services for people separated and damaged about 380,000 homes. Peo- and the International Committee of the from, or without news of, their family ple were forced to evacuate in haste. They Red Cross (ICRC) organized a tracing re-

ENGLISHmembers. ESPleft behindAGNO theirL possessions and liveli- PORsponseTUGAI in orderS to help people locate their ARABE RUSSE CHINOIS hoods and often had no knowledge of relatives. the whereabouts of relatives. It is reported that 4.6 million people were affected, a staggering figure.

FRANÇAIS

BULLETIN

EN BREF

ZOOM

RAPPORT

RÉFÉRENCE Indian Society Red Cross

MOBILIZING RESOURCES The successful involvement of the IRCS, the In addition, in affected areas the names of Responding to a crisis of this magnitude re- dedication and enthusiasm of staff and vol- missing persons and their relatives’ enquir- quires extensive preparation. The IRCS had unteers and the high level of responsibility ies were printed in the most popular local benefited from a two-year capacity-build- and ownership may be attributed to the newspapers. Several television and radio ing project, but it had never provided RFL two-year RFL capacity-building process. stations provided free airtime as well. services on such a massive scale. GATHERING AND COMMUNICATING Lists of people who had died were com- The joint IRCS-ICRC capacity-building INFORMATION ON VICTIMS piled and compared with the list of miss- project had several facets : training for IRCS The team in Bihar collected tracing requests ing persons. When matches were found, staff ; development and promotion of RFL from the affected population, took them the information was passed on to the tools ; providing RFL services for unaccom- to a central point and entered them in a responsible authorities who then contact- panied children ; coordination and manage- database. ed the families. ment of IRCS state branches ; management of dead bodies. Lists of missing persons and enquirers were AN ADDED BENEFIT drawn up and data was matched. While vis- The IRCS’s tracing activities in Bihar were The IRCS sent a five-member team trained iting camps, tracing volunteers collected widely covered by local and national in tracing services to Bihar. The team was over 1,000 tracing requests concerning al- print media. This had a fundraising spin- equipped with mobile handsets as well most 3,000 missing or separated persons. off. Several potential donors have contact- as posters and brochures in the local lan­ ed the IRCS and enquired about their RFL guages, for information gathering, training GETTING THE WORD OUT activities. and communication purposes. Recently Lists of missing persons and enquirers were printed RFL guidelines and a handbook printed and posted in all the camps. A toll- COMMITTED UNTIL THE END proved to be indispensable when it came free helpline number was posted along Today, the IRCS is the only organization still to training volunteers and providing a rap- with the request that anyone who might involved in the tracing operation in Bihar. id RFL response. have recognized a name, or who knew of a It will continue to follow up the remaining missing person’s whereabouts, should get cases of separated or missing family mem- In coordination with other humanitarian or- in touch. bers after the emergency phase, for as ganizations, the IRCS established a tracing This toll-free helpline was widely publicized long as necessary. network by mobilizing more than 200 volun- in the media and its number displayed on teers. After receiving half a day’s training, tracing posters in affected areas. Trained these committed volunteers went to work in volunteers answered calls to the helpline the five most seriously affected districts. day and night. RFL IN DISASTERS

Strengthening the Movement’s response in who respond to disasters, whether they cally in large-scale disasters. This group, the area of restoring family links (RFL) during are from the ICRC, National Societies or which will be deployed by the CTA, will con- disasters has been identified as a shared ob- the Federation. sist of approximately 60 persons. It is also en- jective in the wake of recent major disasters – However, it is intended to be of particular visaged that members of the group will be the 2005 tsunami, the Bam earthquake, and use to those who have to manage RFL re- drawn from around the world. Training will Hurricane Katrina among others. sponses. As such it aims to be a simple oper- take place in Bangkok, Dakar, Geneva, Lima The report in this bulletin on the exceptional ational guide setting out the appropriate and Nairobi over the coming 12 months. Na- RFL response of the Indian Red Cross Society approaches in most circumstances and for tional Societies and ICRC delegations will be to the Bihar floods draws attention once the most important needs. made aware of this training, so that persons again to these humanitarian needs and to The manual covers preparedness, assess- may submit their applications to join the pool the importance of all the components of the ment, planning and implementation ; it is of specialists. Movement working together. hoped that it will provide decision-makers In order to strengthen such responses glo- with a common “operational grammar” ena- It is hoped that these steps will help to in- bally, an ICRC project – part of the implemen- bling them to make key choices under disas- crease understanding of RFL within the tation of the RFL Strategy for the Movement – ter conditions. Movement, and that RFL will become part of is being undertaken with support and input It will be translated into the four official lan- the Movement’s standard operational re- from the and the British guages of the Movement and distributed to sponse to natural disasters. Over the last year Red Cross. The project has two elements : all the delegations of the ICRC and the Feder- or so, we have already seen RFL responses to a field manual and the establishment of a ation and to all National Societies. The manu- disasters in Mexico, Bangladesh, India, Nepal “pool of specialists” for rapid deployment in al will be published in 2009. and other places. Such action will help the a disaster. Movement to improve the quality of its re- POOL OF SPECIALISTS sponse to one of the most basic human FIELD MANUAL Another aim of the project is to train selected needs – remaining linked to your own family The target audience for this manual con- members of the staff of the ICRC and Nation- members. sists of RFL staff and volunteers and others al Societies to respond rapidly and systemati-

THE PERSPECTIVE FROM CANADA “Countless

One in five people in Canada was born in an- Information finally came through a Red people here have other country. One in three has at least one Cross message. parent who was born outside Canada. Im- no idea what migration is a central part of Canadian his- We see and have first-hand experience of became of tory and identity. the physical, psychological, sociological and economic importance of maintaining con- relatives from In recent years, many immigrants to Canada tact with one’s family when one is building a have been arriving from conflict areas such new life in a new country. Such contact is whom they were as Afghanistan and the Democratic Re­ important not only for individuals, but for separated during public of the Congo. the whole community. such conflicts.” Countless people here have no idea what We also understand how easy it can be for became of relatives from whom they were these ties to be broken, especially during a separated during such conflicts. disaster or a conflict. We are already tackling several key chal- lenges that relate to Objective 1 of the Strat- Many of us working on Restoring Family The RFL Strategy provides a solid base that egy : Improving restoring family links capacity Links (RFL) for the Canadian Red Cross we at the Canadian Red Cross are now using and performance. RFL in Canada relies heav- are immigrants ourselves. Some of us in order to build a long-term plan of action ily on the work of a wonderful and constant- have our own personal RFL stories, such as for RFL and a stronger, truly impartial pro- ly evolving team of volunteers who are Almira, who waited for 10 months for news gramme that reaches and serves everyone supported by four full-time staff. Ensuring of her sister after war broke out in Bosnia. who could benefit from our services. standard casework across a huge country COORDINATION AND PROMOTION

Brochure and leaflet The ICRC has published the RFL Strategy together with a promotional leaflet. The Eng- lish and French versions are now available to all National Societies, ICRC delegations and the Federation. The Arabic, Russian and Spanish versions will be finalized in 2009.

Boris Heger/ICRC Logo for the Family Links Network One of the objectives of the RFL Strategy is to raise the profile of the Family Links Net- work among beneficiaries, governments and donors, and to foster awareness of with vastly different needs calls for a com- ment based on a song, “I Know You’re Out the service it provides and the Movement’s prehensive training package and up-to-date There,” which was contributed by an immi- expertise in this area. Accordingly, a visual procedural guidelines. grant in Vancouver. Also in the past year, the identity, including a logo, has been devised programme and successful reunifications to enhance RFL communication. Our continuing reliance on an outdated da- have been covered on television and radio, tabase is a particular obstacle to efficiency. and in newspapers. The RFL logo was selected following exten- Following a review of databases used by sive consultation between the ICRC and several other National Red Cross and Red At the 30th International Conference in Ge- National Societies. As a symbol of the integ- Crescent Societies, some of whom, we dis- neva last year, the Canadian Red Cross and rity of the service provided, it is intended covered, were also looking to upgrade, we the Government of Canada signed a joint to instil a sense of trust, familiarity and decided to develop an updated tool that pledge to cooperate on the Strategy. This professionalism, and to be recognizable meets our specific requirements. pledge, and our work connected to the around the world. Strategy, will give us, we hope, the momen- We have also identified the need for better tum to build a programme that truly reaches Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian outreach, resource mobilization and com- all the vulnerable people in Canada who and Spanish versions of the logo are cur- munication. Some immigrants to Canada desperately need RFL services. rently available. National Societies can trans- are aware of RFL because of contact with late the phrase “RESTORING FAMILY LINKS” the ICRC in their home or transit countries. Henry Dunant recognised the importance of into their own languages, and associate it Others, however, have no idea that the sending family news from the battlefield in with the same logo. To do so, please consult Canadian Red Cross has a programme that Solferino. As family links around the world the guidelines which have been established may be able to help them reconnect with continue to be broken by conflict and disas- to ensure that the logo is used effectively their families. ter, we want to be in the best position possi- and consistently and which are available Comité international de la Croix-Rougeble to restore them. from the ICRC.Comité international de la Croix-Rouge 19, avenue de la Paix 19, avenue de la Paix To address this gap1202 we Genèv are e,currently Suisse collabo- 1202 Genève, Suisse rating with our Tpublic + 41 22 affairs 734 60 01department F + 41 22 733to 20BETH 57 MARTIN ImplementationT + 41 22 group 734 60 01 F + 41 22 733 20 57 finalize an RFL communicationE-mail: [email protected] strategy. www One.cicr Programme.org Associate | Restoring Family In line withE -mail:the RFL icrc.gv Strategy,[email protected] the www ICRC.cicr will.org © CICR, février 2009 © CICR, Month Year, date of content particularly exciting project has been the Links | Canadian Red Cross establish and chair an implementation development ofPhoto a public de couv serviceertur e,announce crédit photographique- group composedPhoto de of couv Nationalerture, créditSocieties, photographique the International Federation and the ICRC. The group will provide guidance and support in the implementation of the RFL Strategy. A International Committee of the Red Cross International Committee of the Red Cross 19, avenue de la Paix first meeting19, avis enueplanned de la forPaix 6– 8 April 2009. 1202 Geneva, Switzerland National Societies1202 Gene willva, Switzerland be provided with T + 41 22 734 60 01 F + 41 22 733 20 57 more details.T + 41 22 734 60 01 F + 41 22 733 20 57 E-mail: [email protected] www.icrc.org E-mail: [email protected] www.icrc.org © ICRC, February 2009 © ICRC, Month Year, date of content 0930/002 02.2009 1,500 Front cover, photo credit Front cover, photo credit

Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja 19, avenue de la Paix 19, avenue de la Paix 1202 Ginebra, Suiza 1202 Ginebra, Suiza T + 41 22 734 60 01 F + 41 22 733 20 57 T + 41 22 734 60 01 F + 41 22 733 20 57 Correo electro.: [email protected] www.cicr.org Correo electro.: [email protected] www.cicr.org © CICR, Month Year, date of content © CICR, Month Year, date of content

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