Everyday, one sees Mrs. Ven sitting there waiting for her son to come back.

It is a village called Chan, in Khum Taing Krasaing of Batheay district, Kg. Cham province. Just about 78 km, Northeast of Phnom Penh, under a small hut at the North end of the village, there is a bending back woman, aged 82, sitting on a piece of wood with a walking stick in her hand. Every day, she spends her time sitting there, displaces only when she needs to cook her lunch and to feed a pig binding underneath the hut, about 3 m away from her seat. Her name is VEN OENG a native villager of Phum Taing Krasaing, the neighboring village of Phum Chan. She moved into current address few years ago.

It was 14 June 2006. At around 14:00 o’ clock, a white car with the Red Cross flag on its rear and wording Tracing Service of the Cambodian Red Cross on both sides of the doors arrived in front of Mrs. VEN’ s hut. Stepping off the car, there was a family: a father, a mother and two daughters. Without waiting for others, the father, a middle aged man, ran straight to Mrs. VEN, who was staring with big surprise of the unexpected visitor. She was sitting at her seat with wondering face, wanted to know who was coming to see her. Came closer and after having started at each other, Mrs. Ven  soon hugged the man very tightly. Both burst into tears and cried. Mrs. Ven: “ My beloved son “, and the man “ My very dear Mummy “. It was the reunion of a mother and a son who was separated for 23 years because of war and armed conflicts in Cambodia. It is one of three family reunion organized by the Tracing Service of the Cambodian Red Cross in the last three years. Other two cases of family reunions: a son living in France could find a mother whom he was separated at his 5th year of age; a daughter living in France was separated from her mother since she was a little baby, and the recognition of the mother was made only after a DNA test.

“ I could hardly believe my eyes. My dream comes true today. Here is my son, Mr. BIN THAN alias TIN. He was forced to join the Khmer Rouge armed forces and left the family when he was 17 years old “, said Mrs. VEN, whilst taking the scarf to weep her tears. “ I was waiting for his news and always ask myself where he is “, continued Mrs. VEN, with new drops of tears; she started crying again. “ I dream of you  almost every night. I pray for your safety, your life and your s return. Sometimes I need to console myself by saying to myself if he is still alive, he might have come back home; or sent messages. I obliged to assume, very much sorry to tell you, you are dead. Amidst conflicting thoughts, I still have hope, the HOPE seeing you coming back home. What I could do is waiting, and today, after 23 years, you are again in my arms”, said Mrs. VEN whilst caressing the forehead of her son, Mr. Tin.

“ I am sitting here whole day, from morning till evening. I crawl up the hut when night comes.  My routine life. From my seat, I walk up to the kitchen to cook meal, when I am hungry. Despite my age and my binding back, I have to help my daughter who is a widower with three children to feed. They work in the field or do labor work to get daily income. I can help them looking after this house, planting rice and feeding pigs. His father died several years ago. His  three elder brothers died one after another after the death of his father. Starting today, I am now having 2 children, him-Mr. Tin and his sister, Mrs. BIN Y, whom I share the shelter “, told Mrs. Ven the Red Cross staff who has helped her made the family reunion possible.

Holding his mother in the arms tightly and by looking at his accompanying people, Mr. Tin started to introduce his wife and the two girls. He told with cheering face “ When I left, I was alone, but now, I come back with four people. I am married and have now four children. Two boys, 14 and 11; and two girls, 8 and 6. The boys could not come with us because they are having classes. Only these two girls are coming. Please accept your daughter-in-law and the grand-daughters’.

Mr. TIN was happy being back home. After 23 years he could hardly believe his true story. He was half sad and half happy. He lost his father and three brothers. He could not recognize his mother at once because of her back. But he could immediately recognize his elder sister. “ I remember her very well, her face, her voice. I am very sad for the absence of my father and the three brothers. I am still lucky. I can come and see my mum at her 82 years..... I am very grateful to the tracing service of the Cambodian Red Cross who has helped me tracing my parents and made my family reunion into real life “, said Mr. Tin, with emotional voice to Mrs Sao Sokun, Head of Tracing Service from the National Headquarters, and Mr. Som Sun Heng, Tracing Agent of Kompong Cham Branch.

Surrounding by relatives, neighbors and friends, Mr. Tin, who is now 40, and his wife, Mrs. Khuon Yom, of similar age, told the tracing story of his mother.

“  We live in O Choam Krom village, of Kompong Lopeu Commune in Samlot district of Battambang province. It is 80 km in the Southwest of Battambang provincial city. The village is very remote. Rare travellers are coming to our commune. The road access is still difficult. In the rainy season, one has to go across one stream on the way to the village. In dry season, the access is easier. We are living in isolation community. We never know even the district city, Samlot. We can hire a motorbike to come to Samlot, if we can afford to pay; but coming back we have to look for one, negotiate the price and have to pay double because no passenger on their way back to the city.

One day, in 2005, we saw our neighbor have visitors. They all came from Kompong Speu province to see their daughter and her growing family, whom they lost contact since 1979. They got the address of our neighbor from the CRC Tracing Agent in Kg. Speu. After having received the news on the address, they all came by their own means. We learnt from my neighbor that the Red Cross has a free of charge tracing service. My neighbor made the request tracing for their parents in 2004.

After having witness that reunion, we wished to see the Red Cross man coming again to our village. It was January 2006. We were at home. The man in the Red Cross T-shirt and cap came to our house willing to ask for the name of someone whom we did not know. It was our luck. We took the chance telling him of our wishes. He took the request out from his shoulder bag, he told us of his mission and his service helping restoring family link. He asked us the details and started filling the form. He read to us of what he wrote for our consent.

Several months later, the Red Cross man came again. This time we got the news from home. The father died and only the mother and a sister survived. They even moved from the original village we put in our request. We were very happy getting few words from our mother, Mrs. Ven, asking us to come and see her. We could not afford. Again, we asked the favor of the tracing service. We planned once in that same month, March 2006 to come and see our mother. But we could not, Mr. Tin was fallen sick.

Again, the reunion was organized. Now we are here and back to our home village. This is the happy moment of our family – the reunion “.

The recognition of this family reunion should go to the whole tracing service of the Cambodian Red Cross, in particular Mr. Saing Choeun, the Battambang tracing agent since 1990. He is capable handling thousands of tracing requests from within the country and overseas and Red Cross messages. In recent years, there is a decrease of activities, but the need is still there. In 2005, just within Battamang, there are 655 tracing requests with 225 case of 854 people positive; the requests from outside Battambang, 998 requests with 662 cases of 2,850 people positive. The recognition should go also to the tracing agent of Kg. Cham Branch, Mr. Som Sok Heng, who has been serving the service since 1990. The requests in 2005 of the Kompong Cham Branch records at 745 cases with 520 positive of 2,649 people.

Tracing and Red Cross Message Service in Cambodia is a bilateral cooperation between the CRC and the ICRC since 1988. It was supported and managed by the ICRC Tracing Agency till 1999, whereby in 2000 the service was handed over to the Cambodian Red Cross with two years transition. The annual agreement is reviewed regularly by both parties. The budget support to the service in 2006 is US$ 43,000 for 2006. In the third quarter of 2006, there are 26 new tracing requests from different places, and 23 cases opened. 82 cases are underway (24 cases inter-Cambodia, 36 from Cambodia to abroad and 22 cases from abroad to Cambodia). As for the Red Cross Messages, there are 3, 471 which is increased by 855 RCM in comparison to the same period in 2005.