Reuniting with her sister after being separated for half century, the beneficiary has started to be volunteer for tracing service
There are 200 applications submitted for tracing service provided by the Hong Kong Red Cross each year, among the nearly 35% success rate, retired mum Ms Sau Mei Leung is one of the luckiest ones.
It all has started with a letter of hope, which brings Ms Leung’s wish of reuniting with her sister comes true. During one evening walk, her son stopped her before entering their flat, “Mum, you need to be prepared emotionally, because you might have a chance to trace your long-lost sister.” He received a letter from the Hong Kong Red Cross, it mentioned that Ms Leung’s sister hoping to find and reunite with her through the tracing service. The Leung’s sisters were born in a single-parent family in the 1960s, their physically-disabled mum had to take care of 3 children on her own, she let others adopt her younger daughter due to financial difficulty. Later, the younger sister changed her name and birth date shown on the identity card, resulting in the loss of contact between Ms Leung’s family and her. After all these years, the younger sister tried to reach out to her family of origin, with the help of tracing service provided by the Hong Kong Red Cross, she successfully found her family.
Being in the same boat, Ms Leung empathizes with other separated families, therefore she has taken the volunteer role as Tracing Ambassador. During the service, she has a strong impression of a lady named “Han Sam” (Meaning “deep hatred” in Chinese). Han Sam ‘s mum passed away a few days after giving birth to her, she felt guilty and believed that she was the one who caused her mum’s death. After reconnecting with her long-lost brother through Hong Kong Red Cross, she also found out that the pronunciation of her name was a careless mistake. After knowing that her family originally wanted to name her “Hang Sam” (Meaning “deep blessing”), Han Sam was relieved from the guilt she felt in all those years. Now the whole family gets along well and even goes on vacation together. She is filled with a deep blessing of love.
Despite technology has shortened the distance of communication between people, family separations still happen in society today. In addition to natural or man-made disasters, adoption is also the main cause of family separation. Since 1951, Hong Kong Red Cross has assisted many individuals to locate and re-establish communication with their lost family members due to natural disasters or wars, or other cases with special reasons according to humanitarian principles consideration. Tracing service aims to restore people relationships, throughout the journey, the seekers can resolve emotional baggage and complete the gap of life.
Even though the success rate of tracing services is only 35%, the tracing team values the practice of humanity spirit, accompanying the beneficiaries to walk through the path of tracing, giving them light and warmth in the cold fog and bringing the lost family hope. Therefore, we sincerely hope to work with you to support those families who have been separated and let them reunite with their families. You may consider increasing your current monthly donation or encouraging your friends and family to participate in the monthly donation program to become "Friend of the Red Cross" so that we can devote more resources to tracing services. I look forward to your kind support, practice the spirit of humanity with us, and alleviate the suffering of the separated families.
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