KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) —The Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR), is seeking to adopt best practices from Canada in order to improve childcare and protection in Jamaica.

The objective is to improve the mechanisms for addressing child abuse and children who go missing.

Registrar of the OCR, Greig Smith, and Ananda Alert Officer, Barbara Gardner recently participated in a one-week United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF-sponsored study tour to Toronto, where they held discussions with government officials from the Children’s Aid Society and the Chief of the Police Services Division in Toronto.  

The team witnessed the operations of the Amber Alert child abduction warning system, which the Canadian authorities adapted from the United States’ model.  It was named for Amber Hagerman, a nine-year old girl, who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996.

 “Our objectives were to assess and review the Amber Alert system, to see how best we can forge collaboration with partnering agencies in Canada and to improve our operational mechanism to deal with child abuse on a daily basis,” Smith said.

“The trip was also intended to improve our multi-agency approach in fighting the issues of missing children and children, who have been abused,” he added.

Smith says the Toronto Police Services Division has offered to assist with the improvement of the Ananda Alert system, which was established in 2009 following the abduction and death of 11-year-old Ananda Dean.

“Whether they will be coming here or we will be going back, is something for discussion, but we will be having further dialogue with them,” he said. He noted that this would be done in consultation with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

“I have written to the Police Commissioner. He did respond and we are now in dialogue with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, who is responsible for operations, in which we will see how best we can strengthen the system, in terms of who can be considered missing,” he said.