IRC's 'detective work' still reuniting families in Haiti

Nine months after the earthquake, an IRC family tracing team's detective work brought an overjoyed Oservio Janvier and his little boy, nine-year-old Genald, back together.

Photo: Susana Ferriera/IRC

One year on, the International Rescue Committee and other aid groups in Haiti are — amazingly — still  reuniting children and families who were separated in the chaos of the January 12 earthquake.

In the days after the quake, aid groups working together and jointly led by the IRC divided up districts, set up a database, trained caseworkers and community organizations, and began working with the Haitian government to identify and register separated children. 

So far those efforts have reunited more than 1,300 children with their families.

The smallest clues ... a photograph, a teacher's name, a child's memory of a neighborhood landmark ....  plus weeks or months of painstaking detective work are even now turning up promising leads and putting children back into the arms of their parents and relatives.

Meet some of the families the IRC's family tracing teams have reunited in the past year: 


Photo: Susana Ferreira/IRC

Wilio Jean and his son Wilji, 4 >>



Photo: Lucy Carrigan/IRC

Ibola Samedi and her daughter Lovely, 12 >>



Photo: Susana Ferreira/IRC

Oservio Janvier and his son Genald, 9 >>



Photo: Gerald Martone/IRC

Carole and her niece Geralda, 2  —  and more stories >> 

Despite joyful reunions like these, thousands of other children in Haiti remain in precarious circumstances.  You can read more about what needs to be done to protect them here.  

To learn more about the IRC's work in Haiti and how to help, visit Rescue.org/haiti.