Sri Lanka - Coping together: Families of missing persons help each other

Families whose loved ones go missing in armed conflict live with grief and pain unlike any other. They face many difficulties in day-to-day life as a result of their loved ones being missing. Women whose husbands are missing are stigmatized by their community. Children whose fathers are missing are ridiculed by their peers in school. Parents grow old, longing for their missing sons and daughters to return home.

The ICRC started a programme in Sri Lanka to help these families cope emotionally and address the legal, administrative and economic difficulties they face. Through peer-to-peer support, families of missing persons help each other to overcome their struggles together and find some solace, as they wait for answers.

In Coping Together, four such individuals share their stories