On the hunt for missing children
Betty Ann Blaine LOCAL ADVOCATE for children’s rights, Betty Ann Blaine, is expecting that her presence at the eighth Annual Global Missing Children’s Network (GMCN) Conference will result in the forging of partnerships to aid in locating Jamaican children who have been missing for a long time.
The Hear the Children’s Cry founder, along with the organisation’s acting executive director, Maxine Cooper, will leave the island today for the conference to be held from December 5-6 at the Embassy Suites Alexandria in Virginia, United States. The trip is being made possible by the Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation and GMCN.
Each year, a number of Jamaican children are reported missing, with some of the cases going cold, as the children are never found.
According to data on the Office of the Children’s Registry’s website, between January 2015 and March 2016, there were 2,472 reports of missing children, with 2,234 having been recovered and 10 deceased. But it is the 228 who are still missing from that period and the others who have not been found over the years that concern Blaine the most.
This year, the GMCN conference will focus on the global response to missing children through presentations and discussions along four major themes: technology, prevention, standard operating procedures and working together.
Blaine is hoping to be more informed on best practices and learn of advances in technology that will prove beneficial to Jamaica, which became the first English-speaking Caribbean country to join the GMCN in November of last year.
“The benefit of me attending is to make sure that we continue to be a part of this critical network,” said Blaine. “We definitely want to look at the best practices in other countries because the missingchildren problem is a global problem.”
She added, “One of the other benefits of being a member is that they have the age progression technology, which is something critical if you are looking for those who are longterm missing children.”
The conference will also feature reports by professionals from member countries Taiwan, Portugal, Argentina, and Costa Rica. There will also be special sessions on the GMCN’s new website, state-of-the-art technology and its case management system, as well as a review of Facebook’s Amber Alert (early response) system for missing children.
In May of this year, Hear The Children’s Cry partnered with the GMCN to host a Missing Children Regional Workshop in Kingston, which was sponsored by Facebook. It focused on strategies and solutions geared towards lawenforcement agencies, crucial missing children stakeholder agencies and individuals. Blaine is hoping to develop this relationship with Facebook.
“We want to see if we can cement the relationship with Facebook. So there are all kinds of opportunities that are available to us through this global network that we want to see if we can take advantage of,” said Blaine.