Since the 1980s, more than 95,000 refugees have resettled in Minnesota. Sometimes during the resettlement process, only one family member is selected and the rest of the family has to stay behind. Jason Viana, Preparedness and International Services Manager at the Northern Minnesota Region of the American Red Cross, says that this leads to many refugees becoming separated from their families.

To help people find their families, The American Red Cross offers a free service called Restoring Family Links. The program is designed to help someone reconnect with their family across international lines after a conflict, disaster or humanitarian situation has separated them. Since the American Red Cross is just one of 189 national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies around the world, the organization has a vast number of channels that they can use to help reunite families. Restoring Family Links offers several ways to help reconnect families. They offer tracing services, messaging services, and will also conduct health and welfare checks on a member of someone’s family.

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