Lives devoted to searching for missing people in Colombia
Some families have created their own coping mechanisms to deal with the disappearance of their loved ones and to move forward despite the pain.
Psychosocial support and psychological care are essential for enabling families and their missing relatives to recover from distress.
Their many unanswered questions and unmet needs remain the greatest difficulties faced by missing people’s families.
The families of missing people face many challenges, including a lack of security, and economic, legal, and physical and mental health difficulties.
It is important to always keep in touch with family and friends as this makes it less likely they will go missing.
Finding a missing person is a very complex task, which may be complicated further by the pandemic.
Regardless of how much time has passed, the families of missing people have the right to an explanation that puts an end to their uncertainty and makes sense of what has happened.
All families have the right to receive timely information and help during the search and identification processes, and to have the body of their loved one returned in a dignified manner.
Uncertainty is physically and mentally exhausting. Therefore, knowing what happened to a loved one is not only a right, it also helps to bring closure.
Their many unanswered questions and unmet needs remain the greatest difficulties faced by missing people’s families.
Over 120,000 people are missing in Colombia, and each one has a family that is being forced to live with uncertainty. When a loved one goes missing, families do whatever they can to locate their missing relative, embarking on a journey that often lasts a lifetime.
These are the true stories of ten families' journeys to find out what had happened to their missing loved ones. They all insisted on their right to know, sought to give new meaning to the anguish caused by the disappearance, recover psychologically, and restore dignity to the missing person.
Families of missing people are relentless, but they should not have to search alone. All of us can all play our part in helping to find missing people and support their loved ones.
