UGANDA / REFUGEES REUNIFICATION

Uganda Red Cross and Save the Children are currently using a mobile phone app called RapidFTR to streamline and speed up family tracing and reunification for child refugees. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:00
• Production Date: 20 March 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: UGANDA
• MAMS Id: U130320c

Description

STORY: UGANDA / REFUGEES REUNIFICATION
TRT: 2:00
SOURCE: UNICEF
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SWAHILI / NATS

DATELINE: 13 MARCH, 2013, RWAMANJA REFUGEE CAMP, UGANDA

Shotlist

1. Med shot, Pascal, a 15 year old refugee walks while carrying his belongings
2. Wide shot, settlement site
3. Med shot, Pascal walks into his shelter
4. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Pascal, 15 years old refugee:
"I came here because of the war. I saw that they were fighting a lot and I was scared, so I came here."
5. Med shot, aid worker, Fatuma Arinaitwe, takes a photo of Pascal on her cell phone
6. Close up, Fatuma registering Pascal on her cell phone
7. Med shot, Fatuma typing Pascal’s information into her cell phone
8. Wide shot, busy RapidFTR registration tent
9. Med shot, Red Cross aid worker registering a boy and his father on his cell phone.
10. Close up, aid worker typing into his cell phone
11. Med shot, aid worker taking a photo of a refugee with his cell phone
12. Med shot, RapidFTR registration going on in a different tent
13. Med shot, aid worker taking a photo of a young boy outside the tent
14. Med shot, aid worker Fatuma walking while typing into her cell phone
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Fatuma Arinaitwe, Child Protection Officer, Save the Children:
" Before we would just go with a list of names and ask - name, location - ask. But with RapidFTR you have the picture and it is easy tracing while using a picture than just the name"
16. Various, Fatuma showing groups of people the photos of the refugees she has on her phone
17. Wide shot, foster family
18. Wide shot, group of boys outside their UNHCR tent
19. Med shot, a queue outside registration tent
20. Med shot, aid worker looking at lots of paperwork
24. Med shot, boys playing a game with bottle caps in bed
25. Close up, game
26. Med shot, woman washing clothes in a bucket while a song from Congo is sung by boys

Storyline

Pascal is one of many refugees that have fled the fighting in DRC to the Rwamanja Refugee Settlement in Western Uganda.

However, 15 year old Pascal came here on his own, with no family to speak of.

SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Pascal, 15 years old refugee:
"I came here because of the war. I saw that they were fighting a lot and I was scared, so I came here."

But thanks to a new mobile phone application introduced by UNICEF tracing Pascal’s family has now become a lot easier.

RapidFTR is designed to streamline and speed up family tracing and reunification. It is a data storage system that collects, sorts and shares information about unaccompanied and separated children in emergency situations.

Uganda Red Cross and Save the Children are currently using RapidFTR at the camp for the first time.

SOUNDBITE (English) Fatuma Arinaitwe, Child Protection Officer, Save the Children:
" Before we would just go with a list of names and ask - name, location - ask. But with RapidFTR you have the picture and it is easy tracing while using a picture than just the name"

After unaccompanied or separated children are registered, the tracing process begins with aid workers showing photos of the children to groups of people.

If a child is recognized, then the potential family member has to verify information before the child is reunited.

For unaccompanied children either foster families are found or they stay in their own shelter with extra support services provided.

Before RapidFTR, reunification was time consuming and involved lots of paperwork. Now boys like Pascal have a better chance of finding their families.