“Please help us, because we can’t do this alone.” 

Estela de Carlotto, the 94-year-old president of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo), is asking for help in a video the organization posted in July 2024 to raise awareness about its donations campaign. The campaign was relaunched last year and boosted again in 2024 after the Argentine government interrupted its state funding.

Once officially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Argentine state back in 2008, the organization has spent decades searching for the stolen children of the disappeared in the last military dictatorship. Since 1977, the Abuelas have found and restored the identity of 137 people who were taken away from their kidnapped mothers after birth and raised under false identities, often by military families.

Abuelas also launched a social media campaign to raise awareness about their ongoing effort on Tuesday to coincide with Argentina’s National Day of the Right to Identity, established on October 22 to honor the organization’s official date of birth.

“We have spent the last 46 years searching for our grandchildren who were abducted by the civic-military dictatorship. There could be more than 300. We are looking for them. We need to see them. To let them know who they really are and they can be reunited with their true families,” adds Carlotto in the video. Carlotto found her grandson back in 2014 after 36 years of searching.

Celebrities and actors have also joined the campaign, which has been ongoing for several years but was relaunched last year.

“Sometimes the circumstances dictate that one administration helps more than another in this struggle,” actor Leonardo Sbaraglia (Puan, The Man Who Loved UFOs) said in a video he shot at the Abuelas headquarters last September.

“There are still more than 300 men and women who haven’t been able to learn about their true identity,” he added, stressing the importance of supporting the campaign and “expanding the voice” of Abuelas, “so these children can come forward and try to get their identities back.” 

Donations to the Abuelas can be made through their website. Non-Argentine residents can also join the Abuelas donation campaign through Global Giving, a platform where people can opt for regular monthly donations or one-time payments to help specific projects.

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A new generation picks up the fight

“Abuelas needs financing simply because its goal hasn’t been reached yet,” Abuelas board member Claudia Poblete told the Herald. “There are still 300 people we haven’t been able to find.” 

Poblete herself is one of the grandchildren found by Abuelas. She legally regained her true identity in 2000 after a DNA test confirmed she was the daughter of Marta Gertrudis Hlaczik and José Liborio Poblete Roa, both of whom were kidnapped and disappeared by military forces on November 28, 1978, three days after Claudia was born. Gertrudis was kidnapped along with the baby Claudia, who was later abducted and registered by a military family as their own.

Poblete’s own grandmother, Buscarita Roa, is the only original abuela apart from Carlotto who is still an active board member of the organization. Poblete herself joined the board, which is now mostly composed of grandchildren and people looking for their kidnapped siblings. Most of the original grandmothers who began the search have passed away, many of them without ever being able to find their grandchildren. 

The context for this generational takeover, Poblete says, comes at a difficult time, not just because of a hostile local government, but also a turbulent international context.

“There are many problems regarding human rights in the world right now, which kind of makes our story look like it is already finished. And it’s not: we are still working to find people,” she says. 

“And in this adverse context, in which we don’t have the resources we used to have, we need to find those resources ourselves,” she adds, describing how Abuelas also has become a much more professional organization. 

While seeking justice for crimes against humanity, Abuelas also trains educators, institutions, and human rights professionals, and creates public databases, archives, and training materials.

”We have technical teams who are not just relatives, or victims. These are professionals who have worked with Abuelas for a long time and are well-trained in a task that is very particular. They’re committed, but we can’t ask them to work for free.” 

Throughout their history, the Abuelas’ efforts have promoted scientific breakthroughs, particularly in genetic research. In the 1980s, their search prompted American geneticist Mary-Claire King to develop a “Grandparent Rate” test that made it possible to identify grandchildren through DNA even in the absence of their parents. Abuelas also fought to incorporate the right to identity in the United Nations’ International Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Abuelas has now become a world leader in terms of the right to identity, a universal issue that helps children all over the globe. Many human rights organizations who search for missing people in other countries, says Poblete, are constantly reaching out to the Abuelas for help. 

“They have always welcomed everyone because many people come in the hopes of learning from their experience,” Poblete said. “Abuelas still has a lot to give to the world”. 

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