Families of the Missing, (FOM), family identification program is the activity involving establishing if a certain person is a family member of a missing person. This program involves interviewing potential families to establish if they are actually families of missing persons. The identification program is undertaken in different dimensions, among them: Holding a seminar were we invite potential families of missing persons to interview them one by one; and the other method is through field work door to door identification upon the invitation and request from the families.
Under this program, once we identify these families, we refer them to join the family associations which FOM has helped to provide for them. Further, we establish their social needs (problems); if their needs are education for their children, then we donate education materials such as exercise books & study books. These materials are accessed through our well-wishers.
Through this identification program, we give counsel or counselling by encouraging them to be strong and giving them hope. In an event that they do not have legal papers, we advise them to seek the assistance of government authorities through mandated government departments, which looks into their plight where legal status is concerned. If the problem is health related, we engage family association members to help refer them to health institutions, which have been mandated to help these families access health services.
FOM, family identification program helps us to capture the names of surviving families and their missing family members. It is, therefore, considered as a life blood of FOM operations. Through these efforts it gives possibilities of family reunification. It is also the basis for FOM publications as it generates news, which helps to inform the international community.
Lastly, the identification program is also used as learning process, for FOM to develop project proposals based on the actual situational analysis pertaining on the ground or in the field. For example, FOM Africa office recently submitted a project proposal for Basic Skills training, which was formulated as a result of requests from families that they need to be trained in basic skills to aid in their survival.
We rely on contributions from charitable foundations and private individuals. Your contribution will help to support FOM‘s role as an advocate, link, and information archive for family associations. Please click here if you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!