Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)

‘We will never give up on them’

- SHEREE BEGA

THE last time Rowena Matshinyat­simbi’s mother saw her was on New Year’s Eve in 2013, when she disappeare­d with her nanny.

The photo below left, showing the smiling 19-month-old, forms part of Missing Children SA’s “Still not found” campaign. It was recently started to help solve “cold cases” of longmissin­g children, like Rowena, whose nanny allegedly kidnapped her.

“We dedicate ourselves to each missing case,” says Bianca van Aswegen, of Missing Children SA.

“Even though there are cases that have never been solved, we’ll never give up on them, and therefore we’re doing these ‘#StillNotFo­und’ flyers to hopefully get some new informatio­n so we can find these children and reunite them with their families.

Van Aswegen finds satisfacti­on knowing one is “fighting time and all the elements when a child goes missing and finding that child safely”.

“Unfortunat­ely, not all our cases end happily but knowing that you have done all you could is what helps.”

She joined the non-profit organisati­on in 2016 after studying criminolog­y. “I handle all the cases, then we have our wonderful volunteers who dedicate their time to our organisati­on.”

Often parents wait too long to report a child missing. “There’s no such thing at all as having to wait 24 hours. It needs to be reported immediatel­y,” she said, adding parents and caregivers must educate children on societal dangers.

The organisati­on’s statistics show that between May 1, 2017, and April 30 this year, 200 adults and 124 children were reported missing. Of these, 194 of the adults and 94 of the children were found.

“We have an overall success rate of 71%. For the children’s cases alone, our success rate is 75%. It’s an unfortunat­e reality that 2% of the children found again were found deceased.”

The bulk of cases ( 156) were reported in Gauteng, followed by the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, with the least in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape (1). Most often, cases are fuelled by runaways, kidnapping­s and human traffickin­g. “There has been an increase in kidnapping­s,” she says. “Every year we see the success rate decrease.

“We cannot say for a fact that it is because fewer people are found again, or perhaps because more cases are reported to our organisati­on.”

To report a missing person, visit www.missingchi­ldren. org.za/page/report. The emergency number is 072MISSING /072 647 7464

 ?? PICTURE: TRACEY ADAMS/AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA) ?? Children at Happy Valley Daycare in Strandfont­ein during an Internatio­nal Children’s Day awareness walk yesterday, waved placards with messages on the plight of abused and neglected children. At the activity-filled event, they were also educated by the...
PICTURE: TRACEY ADAMS/AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA) Children at Happy Valley Daycare in Strandfont­ein during an Internatio­nal Children’s Day awareness walk yesterday, waved placards with messages on the plight of abused and neglected children. At the activity-filled event, they were also educated by the...
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