Helping spread message on coping with ‘the missing’

A free event at the Jubilee Church, 62 King Edward Street, Hull, from 2pm to 5pm on Saturday will explore the theme of “the missing” and spread the word about the British Red Cross international family tracing service.

Irene, not her real name, was displaced by fighting in the Congo, eventually settling in Hull in 2012.

She was desperate to find her two sisters who she hadn’t heard from since leaving Congo.

The British Red Cross took on her case, but while searching, Irene’s husband heard a rumour her elder sister had died.

The service was eventually able to confirm the sister had died as well as her husband – but were able to put her in touch with her five orphaned children in a refugee camp in Kenya. When the news came, Irene, then pregnant, and her husband were 
overcome.

The service’s co-ordinator Rosie Bacon said: “It was particularly moving as the nephew had written an incredibly beautiful handwritten message and had attached two original photos of himself and his siblings, 
yellowed from the sun, on which he had written the names of 
them all and indicated who was who.”

Irene is helping the children, all under 16, and longs for the day she can meet them.