ABSTRACT
In August 1994, even before the war ended, SOS Children’s Village staff members from Kenya and Uganda, who had better and safer access to the northeastern part of Rwanda, began to develop this Emergency Relief Program. Ngarama took mostly older children, while infants and toddlers were taken care of in Kigali and Gikongoro. Emergency relief programs were also set up at the two existing SOS Children’s Villages in Kigali and Gikongoro in response to the plights of the innumerable refugee and orphaned children. One of the most important tasks of the SOS Children’s Village social workers in this emergency situation is to identify the children. This means finding out their names, their origin and their family. Once this is accomplished, the search for the parents or other close relatives, such as siblings, grandparents, aunts or uncles, begins. If the search is successful, the social workers visit the child’s family and determine its circumstances.
