A child goes missing every five minutes in the UK. Every 18 seconds in the USA. Every year over 100,000 children are reported abducted.
These families go through unimaginable agony whilst their child is missing yet we have a severe lack of statistics in the UK and many other countries. The responsibility for missing and abducted children is disorganized and fragmented.
In governments there is no chain of responsibility for missing children and no co-ordinating of policies. Secondly, there is no comprehensive or reliable data on missing children. The little information that we do have has been gleaned from un-coordinated sources.
This lack of data severely hampers any policies that may have been attempted to be put into place. Finally is the fact that the reluctance across all sectors of the government and society to treat missing children as a unique and urgent problem.
Today, in a world where we are battling terrorism and wars, may people forget that there are so many children who are missing and need a higher priority within the government. Act now to highlight the problem of missing children and reunite families.
These children are the future.
They matter.
Help bring them home.
