ReliefWeb

In South Sudan, ICRC has been reconnecting families for over 30 years through satellite phone calls and Red Cross Messages – letters that share news between family members.

Phone calls are offered in various displacement sites where the Red Cross is present as well as whenever teams carry out an activity—like a distribution of food or household items—where communication channels are inexistent. The phone calls are free to anywhere in the world and last three minutes long for each person.

Whenever possible, the ICRC physically reunites parents and minors, as well as vulnerable people, even across borders. The worldwide presence of the Red Cross Movement allows us to be able to trace and reunite loved ones in almost any country in the world. We provide transportation and accompany minors during the reunification.

Since 2013, ICRC in South Sudan has registered 6,709 individuals in 2,554 tracing cases (families) and reunited 978 individuals with their loved ones. There have been case exchanges with 27 countries.

Highlights of our work in South Sudan between January and September 2018:

• Distributed monthly household food rations to over 370,000 people
• Improved access to safe drinking water for 357,000 people
• Evacuated 442 weapon-wounded people
• Provided antenatal consultations for 11,300 women and safe deliveries for 2,000 women
• Improved living conditions for 3,300 detainees in 13 places of detention
• Facilitated 36,000 phone calls between family members separated by the conflict