T&T Red Cross Director General attends conference on 'restoring family links'

The Director General of Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross has returned from an international conference on tracing with ideas on how to further develop this activity within her National Society.
 
The ‘restoring family links’ conference, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from November 27-29, 2006, was organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Argentinean Red Cross; 28 National Societies participated.

Through its network of 185 national societies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement can “trace” missing relatives and restore links between families estranged by war or disasters. This tracing service is a core activity for TTRCS.

One of the ideas Ms Lalsingh has returned home with is integrating the tracing service into other core programme areas.

“Everyday we see how families loose touch, and in every one of our activities, we can factor in an approach to restoring family links – also in times of peace,” Ms Lalsingh said.

She added that restoring family links can be part of other activities, such as social awareness activities for HIV and AIDS, disaster preparedness and the Community First Aid Education-sessions.

“Red Cross volunteers are communicating with the public in all our projects and if for instance a person is estranged from their family due to HIV or AIDS, we can offer to re-establish those links as a part of our activities.”

“Whenever we are present with a booth at a health fair or take part in public trainings, we have the opportunity to speak with the public about how to get back in touch. And as we are always impartial in our work, we can play a role as advocates,” Ms Lalsingh ended.

The conference, held at the same time in the various continental regions, had as its objectives to improve capacity and performance in restoring family links; to enhance coordination mechanisms and the effectiveness of the Movement’s cooperation; and to strengthen responsibility of the Movement in restoring family links.