What is Family Tracing and Reunification?

In times of crisis, families get separated and dispersed. Children get lost. Organizations devote lots of time and effort to bringing these families back together, through a process called Family Tracing and Reunification, or FTR. There is often no set system for reuniting these families, but generally it works like this: A child's information is collected on paper forms. A photo is taken. Maybe that information gets digitized and spread piecemeal to other NGOs, but often it just sits in a box in an office waiting to get typed up. There's no central repository and no easy way to retrieve, update or share information. Every day apart from family is crucial to the well being of a child, especially infants. Even small inefficiencies have lasting impact and short delays are too long.  more