Ask HN: Do you know of any resources for reuniting refugees with their families?

Today I was shocked when talking to a stranger. He has been working in different countries for the last 14 years trying to get his wife and children out of Eritrea (Africa).

In my life, I'm used to having ideas on how to approach any problem, being able to google it, and start fixing working. An unapproachable issue of this magnitude stuns me.

I'd like to be able to at least point my friend/acquaintance in the direction of an NGO that works on problems like these, but I could only listen, stunned.

Can you imagine working on getting your family out of a dictatorship for over a decade with no progress? Can you imagine if you couldn't even talk to your loved one for more than a few minutes before your connection cut out? Knowing they live in a place where water only runs a few days a month? Where the government wouldn't give them their birth certificates, and didn't allow exit visas for it's citizens?

I feel like the heart of a hacker reaches out to solve problems, to make the world run better, to destroy artificial inefficiencies.

Do any of you guys even have an idea how someone would get started on something like this? Further complicating matters, my friend Mulubrharn only has rudimentary English literacy. We live in Chicago, if that helps.