An initiative that seeks to find and re-unite missing children with their families, Missing Children Ghana has been officially launched in Accra today, Wednesday, May 24, 2023.
The Missing Children Ghana, which has hope, empathy, excellence and professionalism as its core values was bourn out of a documentary on Atinka TV by Ms Regina Asamoah.
Since its inception, the project has re-united about 200 missing persons, 80 per cent children and a few adults with their families.
The Missing Children Ghana, a non-profitable organisation, was launched alongside the commemoration of the International Missing Children’s Day which is celebrated across the world on May 25th each year.
This was the same time the project observed its second anniversary.
Key stakeholders, including the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Interior, Economic and Organised Crime Office(EOCO), the Ghana Police Service were present at the launch which was held at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel Accra.
At the event, which was sponsored by Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, Ghana Italian Women Association (GIWA), and IPMC, stakeholders shared the issues at hand, opinions, gave advice and suggestions to tackle the situation.
Aside from that, an official website for Missing Children Ghana, www.missingchildrenghana.com was launched.
A documentary was also played to allow patrons to have a feel of what the whole project is about and doing.
Meanwhile, some families who were once victims of missing children were also present to share their story.
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Speaking at the event, the Founder of Missing Children Ghana, Ms Regina Asamoah urged all to support the initiative especially with logistics, noting that the services provided has been totally free of charge.
She urged all parents to ensure to take very good care of their children in order to prevent them from getting lost.
Moving forward, she said the Missing Children Ghana will not relent on its efforts to continue to help look for missing persons, stating that there are 630 reports of missing persons, out of which 200 have been found.
To those who keep missing children in their home when they find them on the streets, Ms Regina Asamoah pleaded with them to always report to the police and not house them.
In a situation where people want to report a missing person’s case, she urged all to visit the www.missingchildrenghana.com to make the report.
The Ghana Police Service also commended Atinka TV for its documentary, Missing Children that has found and reunited about 200 missing persons, both children and adults.
According to the Director at Cold Case Unit, CID HeadQuarters, Supt. Mawunyo Nanegbe, the documentary has helped the Police achieve desirable results in finding missing persons in the country.
He noted that last year, the number of cases of missing persons were more as compared to that of this year, although the year has not ended.
He attributed it to the fact that education was less, noting that with the help of Atinka TV’s missing children documentary, the number of missing cases have reduced.
A National Director at the Department of Social Welfare (Head Office), Rev. Dr. Mrs. Comfort Asare warned people not to take missing children they find to their homes.
According to her, no one has the right to take anybody’s child to their homes without reporting to the police or involving any Government institution.
She therefore advised persons who come across missing children to immediately report to the Police or the Department of Social Welfare or other governmental agencies in order to help re-unite them with their families.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori