UNICEF's rapid tracing system aims to reunite families in Yolanda-hit areas

New technology developed by UNICEF is being used to reunite children separated from their families during Super Typhoon Yolanda's onslaught in Tacloban City, JP Soriano reported in "24 Oras", Friday. The rapid family tracing system is a pilot product which became available in 2010. It is used for “family tracing and reunification of unaccompanied and separated children in emergencies.” The system, the first time to be was used in the Philippines, will hopefully reunite children like eight-year-old Nika, with their families. Nika had held on for dear life to a wooden chair as she was washed out to sea after Yolanda's storm surge crushed their house in Barangay San Jose, Sitio Alimasag in Tacloban. Her parents, according to the report, still could not be found. Her grandmother and aunt, who were taking care of her before Yolanda hit, did not survive the storm. Local and social workers are now looking for Nika's other relatives through the rapid family tracing system. Volunteers can enter Nika's personal information, together with a photograph and a voice recording, into the system using a set up Android phone. The data will automatically be uploaded to UNICEF's website and can then be accessed by other social workers that are working with UNICEF. “It syncs the data from the phone. So you have your case data here. All the different phones around all sync into the same computer so we have all the records in here. And there are also different security levels built into the program,” Mac Glovinski of the UNICEF Innovation Unit explained. — Kim Luces/DVM, GMA News