Ah the first Sunday in September, that glorious day where us old blokes get to sit around and be waited on while basking in the love and adoration of our kids.

I wish. More like sit around and watch the kids drink all the good wine and enjoy my perfectly cooked steaks before heading off to resume their busy social lives. Still, it’s one of those days that brings families together all around the country for some good old quality time.

Well that’s the idea anyway. Unfortunately for a lot of people the reality is something pretty different. So many kids these days are, for whatever reason, missing out on a good male figure in their lives, someone they can look up to. And everyone underestimates how important it is to have that role model.

I was always my Dad’s biggest fan, because he was a mentor to me no matter how old I was. At no age does someone stop needing that positive influence in their life. One of the things I’ve learnt from working with Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets is the importance of a kid (particularly blokes) having a male figure in their life who they can confide in and learn from. It invariably is the root of many of the social issues involved with our youth. Never before has it been so important to have that male influence, and at the same time so lacking.

Father Chris often finds that a common link between troubled kids is the lack of a strong and stable male figures in their lives.

My wonderful Dad died on Valentine’s Day last year. I wrote about what he meant to me in an email newsletter to the Sunrise family. I received back some wonderful responses.

The one that sticks in my mind the most was a hand written note from a colleague who said how touched he was by my words and that it had been a reminder to him to cherish every minute with his ageing Dad.

So above all else, days like Fathers Day are the perfect opportunity to really look at your own relationships and understand how significant the bond is between a father and his kids.

Also have a look at the great work that the Red Cross is doing putting missing Dads back in touch with kids.. They have an International Tracing Service which helps reconnect families torn apart by war, conflicts or natural disasters. They’re helping people find missing relatives around the world. Some of the cases even involve people searching for brothers or sisters, mums or dads who went missing as far back as World War 2.

There are around 4000 people who the Red Cross Australia is currently trying to track down, and many of the cases are kids trying to find missing fathers, or fathers searching for long lost children. It’s a wonderful program and highlights the incredible lengths some people go through just for the privilege of knowing their own Dad.

Some of the success stories are just amazing; here's one of them below:

Australian woman Rinka Perez spent more than a decade searching the world for her missing father, before a chance discovery led her to Cuba, and a reunion after 27 years apart.

Rinka’s mother and father, who had been living in Cambodia, were separated during conflict surrounding the fall of the Khmer Rouge in the early 1980s – just months before she was born. Her mother fled the country and ended up resettling in Thailand, but in the process she lost contact with Rinka’s father.

The marathon 30 year search for Rinka’s dad, who she had never met, called on the resources of Red Cross societies in Australia, Cambodia, the US and Cuba.

Rinka’s mother contacted Red Cross in 1993 for help to find her daughter’s Cuban-born father, but those first searches led nowhere. Six years later Rinka came to Red Cross and asked for the case to be reopened.

Finally a breakthrough came when Rinka, on a visit to Cambodia, came across a photo of her dad with a different name – Juan, not Kin Kin De Joan as they had believed. With a new name the Tracing Service spread its search and not long after Cuban Red Cross came back with the news they had found Rinka’s father.

Rinka, has now been to Cuba to meet her dad, and they are in regular contact. 'The first time I met my dad was like a dream come true. I ran into his arms and hugged him, he couldn't stop crying.'

For more information on the Red Cross International Tracing Service.