The Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS) has restored contacts of the 281 South Sudan Refugees in Ethiopia with their families in six months (November 2014 – April2015).
This success has been brought about by the snapshot tool which the ERCS and the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) have implemented in Gambella Region since November 2014.
Snapshot, a new tool for family restoration link (RFL), is a booklet distributed to sister national societies in East Africa Region after compiling photographs of South Sudan Refugees who have lost contacts of their families due to the civil war in South Sudan. The snapshot helped tracing officers and Red Cross volunteers in another national society to look for families of these refugees.
After distributing two snapshots booklets, in January and April, to Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and South Sudan, ERCS has restored contacts of 281 South Sudanese refugees with their families in six months which is too short to reunite these numbers of people using other RFL tools.
The report also indicates that snapshot has proved to be an appropriate tool in refugee camps in Gambella where there is a high influx of refugees as it fills the gaps observed while using other RFL tools such as phone call service and Red Cross message which require addresses of individuals wanted.
In two rounds, Red Cross has issued two booklets which contained 1,171 photographs of South Sudan Refugees of which 122 are minors, the report indicated.