A man thought his mom had died. 44 years later, they were reunited thanks to a Facebook page for missing children.

• A mother and son were separated from each other 44 years ago. Both believed the other to be dead.
• They were reunited earlier this month, thanks to a Facebook page with two million followers.
• The Facebook page's founder told Insider that, at first, the mother and son acted like strangers.

A Facebook page was able to reconnect a mother and son who were separated for 44 years, both previously having believed the other was dead, CBS News was the first to report.

Wissam Mohamed, 44, was born in Jordan to an Egyptian mother and a Jordanian father who, at the time, were going through a divorce, according to CBS News.

Mohamed became sick two weeks after being born, and his father decided to tell his then-wife that the baby had died in the hospital. "He was afraid she might take me away with her," Mohamed told CBS News.

The couple's divorce was finalized, and the baby's mother returned to Cairo, Egypt, assuming her child was dead, CBS News said.

Mohamed lived for decades, knowing very little about his mother and thinking she might be dead, according to CBS News. It was only around four years ago that he came to believe that she might still be alive after lawyers said they could not locate a death certificate, Mohamed said, per CBS News. 

Though he knew she might be alive, Mohamed could not locate her.

'In 24 hours, we'd been able to find her'

However, earlier this year, Mohamed's aunt in Jordan found photos of his mother, which set about a chain of events that would lead to a reunion.

The aunt posted the photos on social media, and an Egyptian friend contacted the "Missing Children" Facebook page after seeing the post.

The page, which aims to reconnect missing children and their parents across the Middle East, was founded in 2015 by engineer Rami el-Gebali. 

Speaking to Insider, el-Bali said his team wrote a post explaining that Mohamed was looking for his mother, accompanied by a photo of her, and shared it on December 6 to the Facebook page's almost two million followers. 

"In 24 hours, we'd been able to find her," el-Gebali said.

Things moved quickly from that point. A day later, on December 7, Mohamed flew to Cairo to meet his mother.

They met at that airport, accompanied by el-Gebali. The founder of "Missing Children" said that, at first, the mother and son acted like the strangers they had become.

"They stood still like nobody knew what they should do now for, I think, 20 minutes," he said. "He didn't know if he was allowed to hold and hug this woman, and she didn't know who that man was."

However, after Mohamed kissed his mother on the hand, he said she became moved and "didn't want to leave his hug."

Reflecting on the encounter, el-Gebali said he has become "addicted" to reconnecting missing children with their lost parents. "I've been doing this for eight years. I've witnessed this moment many times," he added.

More than 3,000 missing children have found their parents through the "Missing Children" page, el-Gebali said.