According to AMBER Alert Europe, every year over 300,000 children go missing in Europe. Today is International Missing Children's day, a global awareness day that seeks to educate and connect countries and the different agencies involved in finding a missing child and to encourage a united effort in ensuring missing children reports are shared and everything possible is done to keep children safe.
The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) define a missing child as 'any child under the age of 18 whose whereabouts are unknown... This includes children who have been abducted, abandoned, separated from their parents, or are running away from a home that is not safe.'
At asphaleia, keeping children and young people safe is an essential component of all our services. On this awareness day, we want to highlight the latest campaign by AMBER Alert Europe for parents/carers/guardians to inform them of the steps to take when a child goes missing.
The Check, Think and Report campaign explains these three stages as being the optimum response for when a child is missing. It gives different information depending on the age of the child. Please visit the campaign page to get informed.
Empowering parents/carers/guardians to know what to do in this situation could make a big difference in the outcome. You can play your part with this awareness day by;
Sharing the campaign
Looking out for the children and young people you know or work with and contacting your local child protection agencies if you have any concerns
Sharing public announcements about missing children
Considering donating to the organisations who are working to find them
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