- 10must work together to find the best solutions […] which lead to the truth about the whereabouts of the children.” 156. In this regard, the Court considers that the State should adopt all necessary judicial, administrative, legislative and any other type of measures to promote the tracing and finding of those who disappeared during the armed conflict and the reunification of the families that were separated due to the disappearance of one of their members, including the Serrano Cruz family. 157. As it has been shown, the next of kin of Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz had recourse to the State authorities and to non-governmental organizations, such as Pro-Búsqueda, to trace their family members and to know what had happened to them, and they hoped to find them alive and be reunited with them. The mother and the living siblings of Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz have had to live with the sensation that the family had disintegrated. For example, in her testimony before the Court during the public hearing on September 7, 2004, Suyapa Serrano Cruz, Ernestina and Erlinda's sister, stated that, for her family and herself, “it would mean a great deal” to find Erlinda and Ernestina; that, even though there were “wounds that would never heal,” they would be very “happy,” because there had been “many cases of children who had been reunited” with their families and she hoped that this would happen in the case of her sisters (supra para. 36). Also, in his sworn statement of August 19, 2004 (supra para. 35), José Fernando Serrano Cruz, Ernestina and Erlinda's brother, stated that “[a]s a family, they hoped to discover the whereabouts of the girls at some time; that they would be able to trace them[. T]hat was what gave them strength to carry on; even though it did not console them much, it gave them some serenity…, with the hope of finding them one day.” Even Ernestina and Erlinda's mother, about four months before her death, in her sworn statement of December 5, 2003 (supra para. 35), stated that “the only thing she want[ed was] for her daughters to be returned to her, and if she could ask the judges something it [was] that, at least, they would show her daughters to her.” In this regard, in his testimony before the Court during the public hearing (supra para. 36), Father Cortina stated that shortly before she died, Erlinda and Ernestina's mother was going blind, owing to diabetes, and she said to him that she would like “not to lose her sight, because perhaps she could still see [her] daughters.” 158. The Court has noted that when Ernestina and Erlinda's family refer to them, they speak of them in the present, preserving the image of them as children. In this regard, the expert witness, Ana Deutsch, stated in the report she made in a sworn statement on August 23, 2004 (supra para. 35), that the mother used “the present tense; she did not say 'had' or ask 'what will they be like now?' She said 'This is what a concerned mother thinks, because they are little girls.'“ In this regard, the said expert witness stated that, even though Ernestina and Erlinda disappeared more than 20 years ago, to their next of kin: They have always had a place in the family conversations. They continue to be a presence in the family, a presence that has become more intense since the search has been reactivated [while], at the same time, the anguished has been reactivated. […] The family has definitely suffered an identity crisis. The identity of the family is composed of all its members. Some children died at a very early age, but there was an explanation for their death and the family could assimilate their absence. Deaths due to attacks by the Army are very painful, but the facts are defined, which also facilitates the mourning process. The absence of the girls has still not been resolved within the family, and they are therefore an ever-present absence. *