Not all of the crises that hams respond to are weather-related or natural disasters. Sometimes they are of a deeply human and personal nature. This sort of emergency response is the apparent expertise that has been developed by the West Bengal Radio Club which takes its mission of public service seriously in this regard. Acting once again as a quasi-social service agency, they came to the aid of one woman who was taken from Bengal to Jammu and Kashmir at an early age for a marriage at 14 that separated her from her family.

The National Commission for Women, a government entity that advocates for women, had been trying to assist her in tracing the family she had lost touch with after marrying into a Kashmiri family. The media reports said that the woman, who is now 24 years old, was originally brought to the Baramulla sector in Jammu and Kashmir to be married because her father was unable to bear the expense of raising four children at home.

The woman's brother, Hassan Ali Sheikh, told the Times of India that in the ensuing years they believed she was lost to them forever. But he spoke with her, at long last, on Wednesday, 3rd May 2023, after the women's commission contacted state police who reached out to the hams in West Bengal. The club has a long track record of facilitating such reunions. After contacting the woman with the phone number provided, club secretary Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, reached out to a colleague proficient in Hindi and Kashmiri and details of her story finally emerged. Her brother is expected to travel and bring her home to Bengal soon to be with the family she has missed so much.

Media Story - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/