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Vienna’s Red Cross steps into the breach

vikingfusion

by Courtney Fox

VIENNA— Though the immediate needs of refugees are shelter and food, the Red Cross provides more than just the basics. The goal is holistic help that aids not only the refugees but that also fight the stigma often associated with those who have to flee their homelands.

The Family Tracing Service, for example, one of the oldest programs run by Vienna’s Red Cross, reunites families separated by war or disaster.

Clare Schocher-Döring, head of the Red Cross’s Family Tracing Service

For many refugees and immigrants, simply knowing where their family is could make all the difference, said Clare Schocher-Döring, head of the service.

“The pain that this causes is often not seen, but when you are missing the family, when you don’t know where they are, that is your main concern,” she said. “Nothing else matters to you at the time.”

Through the program, the Red Cross can help reunite families by bringing a family’s nuclear members all to Austria. The core family includes both parents, as well as any children under 18. However, this limited definition of family has separated brothers and sisters who have raised their siblings, and it excludes those over 18 even if they have disabilities.

Once someone knows where his or her family is, the process of making a new country home can begin, Schocher-Döring said.

“You cannot integrate into the culture unless you know where or at least how your family is doing,” she said.

However, the process of finding families is not simple. Many families without identification go years without seeing or hearing from one another. Smugglers often encourage immigrants to change their names, which causes many families to search for relations who are no longer using their family names.

“If we have all the information they can give us, no aliases and at least some idea of where the people we’re trying to get to are, we can reunite the families somewhere between three to six months,” Schocher-Döring said.

ProjectXchange

Another Red Cross initiative, ProjectXchange, founded in 2008, is focused on education. Originally begun for immigrants coming to Austria, the program has adapted as the needs have changed. ProjectXchange now utilizes refugees themselves.

Markus Priller, a founder of the Red Cross’s ProjectXchange. He said he uses photos to teach younger students about the refugee crisis.

“The aim of our program is that people should know a little bit more about the refugees,” said co-founder Markus Priller. “People should see refugees as human beings, as people with a story, with suffering.”

The program’s workshops are for school-aged students and are tailored for specific age ranges. Younger students are taught about the refugees’ cultures and why they had to leave their homelands. The underlining message is the importance of helping others.

For teenagers, refugees speak of why they came to Austria in order to foster discussion.

“You get in touch with your emotions when a man tells you his story,” Priller said. “The emotions that cause people to understand what it takes for a father to leave his family behind in another country in order to create a better life for them here, to understand that you need to hear him tell it.”

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