The Right to Know: 100 years of the Australian Red Cross International Tracing Service

Helen searched for her son for 50 years after they were separated during the Hungarian Revolution. Mrs Lu looked for her children for 23 years after they were torn apart during conflict in Cambodia. Then they found Red Cross' International Tracing Service.

They are two of the thousands of people the tracing service has helped in Australia since it began 100 years ago. For all that time, it's been working to reconnect families and clarify the fate of the missing when people are separated by war, conflict and disaster across the globe – from World War 1 to the current crises in the Middle East. Red Cross searches no matter how long it has been since a war ended or a disaster unfolded, and for many people is their last hope.

'We hear heartbreaking stories of people who have fled war and conflict, of children forced from their parents at gunpoint and of husbands disappearing on their way to work," says Megan Goodwin , Program Coordinator. 'Using Red Cross' network in 189 countries we can get messages to places where formal postal services don't operate, where telephones don't work and where others cannot go.

'The international Red Cross Red Crescent Movement believes people have the right to know the fate or whereabouts of missing family. The distress and the uncertainty of not knowing if your loved ones are even alive can be devastating, it can leave families feeling lost, helpless and unable to move on with their lives."

An exhibition to mark the centenary and tell the stories of some of the families helped opens tomorrow. The Right to Know: 100 years of the Australian Red Cross International Tracing Service will be at Melbourne's Immigration Museum until 25 October 2015. It travels to Adelaide and other locations in 2016.