The tracing, message, and reunion services that the Red Cross provides for thousands of families separated by war each year are set forth in the Geneva Conventions — treaties signed by nearly all nations to set standards for human treatment of people in wartime. In its Congressional charter of 1905, the American Red Cross is also charged with assisting victims of international disaster.
American Red Cross Workers know that humanitarian assistance encompasses the emotional as well as the hysical well-being of those affected by international conflict and disaster. When separated families lose contact, the feel worlds removed from one another. And they suffer.
The Red Cross helps ease that suffering. Mobilizing the vast network of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement — the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), over 160 national societies, and the Magen David Adom society of Israel — the Red Cross can break the silence of imposed separation. Its worldwide communication and location system has brought comfort to countless people around the globe.
The international social services of the Red Cross include:
These stories have a common thread: humanitarian assistance from the American Red Cross. When war, upheaval, or natural disaster disrupts normal communication, the Red Cross springs into action, its array of international social services bringing hope and help to those whose world has spun out of control.