181 children still missing; support programme launched

A total of 181 of the 960 children who went missing last year were unaccounted for up until late yesterday.

This was disclosed by head of the Hear the Children Cry Committee, Betty Ann Blaine, at yesterday's launch of the Missing Children's Support Programme at the Swallowfield Primary and Junior High School in St Andrew.

According to Blaine, 772 of the children who went missing throughout 2008 returned to their families. Seven were found dead.

Children accounted for 66 per cent of the 1,446 persons who were reported missing in 2008.

Yesterday, Blaine described the statistics as frightening and said the problem was one that needed

urgent attention.

"The only way we are going to fight this scourge is to work together," she said.

The Missing Children's Support Programme, which will be run by Blaine's committee, is aimed at protecting the island's children. The programme will

see to the research and constant documentation of the status of missing children, and provide counselling for grieving families. It will also help with the dissemination of information on missing children to keep the public more abreast, and to promote the rescue and return of those who are abducted.

Ironically, yesterday's launch was witnessed by a group of students still grieving after the death of one of their own last year. The badly decomposed body of 11-year-old Ananda Dean was found in a precipice in upper St Andrew weeks after she went missing while on her way home from school. No one was held in connection with her murder.

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