THE MISSING CHILDREN, Update- 200 of them HAVE BEEN FOUND

I got some very happy news by email this afternoon from a lady named Julie. Julie always sends me an email when a missing child is recovered. Today has been a sick day for me but I brought my work home so I can still be productive and I saw Julie's email with the good news. A child form Connecticut, in the USA had been missing since October 10, 2009 and was recovered. Try to imagine the happiness of that family.

Did you know that all over the world children go missing from their families? I am pretty sure it happens in your country too. It is harder to imagine anything much sadder, than to have your child taken and not know his or her whereabouts. There have been many efforts to help locate such children, from putting a photo on a milk carton, to showing them on television.

One very large company called EMCOR has tried a different approach and it is actually working. This program is called Taking KidSafety to the Street and involves placing removable signs on every one of the thousands of vehicles owned by the company. The sign has a photo of the child, and if known the abductor. There are names for the people and there is a large phone number to report the missing child or abductor if you see them. Each month a new set of signs is sent to me by Julie, and I give them out at my portion of EMCOR. Last July the company answered our requests to have signs for personal vehicles too. Each month we receive special signs to go on the back glass of our own vehicles if we want one. These signs can be easily read form the outside of the car buy the driver can see right through them for safety reasons. This is the logo that they use for the campaign to remind everyone about the importance of safety for children.

EMCOR is a company spanning a good part of the English speaking world. Canada, England, and the USA are probably the most prominent locations for the company. The thousands of vehicles in EMCOR’s fleet are all over most parts of these countries at construction sites, as well as public and private buildings. Hundreds of people may see the sign on one of our vehicles each day. With the help of EMCOR as well as other public and private groups 198 of these children have been recovered as of today. For the sake of their privacy I am not printing their names or photos.
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT:
Why might children be missing?
Child soldiers
Held for ransom money from family (kidnapping is a word we use for this too)
Taken for some kind of slavery
One parent taking the children away illegally
To replace a dead baby, a person may steal a live one

What other reasons can you think of that may cause a child to be missing?

Can you understand the fear a family may feel if their child is lost?

*Please comment with any ideas you can think of to help bring children back to their families.

VERB: To miss

To miss - to no longer find or locate. The child is missing.

Like many other English verbs it has forms that can also be used as a noun so we will need to look at many uses and try to learn the difference. Can you think of a way that miss or forms of miss can be used as a noun?

How else can miss be used? Are these examples below all verbs?

Miss Johnson (unmarried lady named Johnson)
To miss the target
Missing in action (military term for soldier who can not be found)
Miss the ball
To miss the flight
To miss someone
Misses sizes (in some countries a clothing size for younger/smaller women)

*Please do not miss your chance to comment on other ways that you might use miss.

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Comment by Jet(China) on October 26, 2010 at 9:42: A miss is as good as a mile.
Good morning,Miss!

Comment by rose on October 13, 2010 at 9:11: Hi Bob

You chose a subject which is very sensitive .. and I think that in most societies there is children victims
Concerning my community,thank God there is no kidnapping.On the other hand there is no doubt that children face many problems such as:
Divorce between parents that affect on their children in a negative way
Few days ago i read in
a newspaper that there is a girl resorted to police
that Ran away from her grandfather who had intended to kill her by
pushing her infront of the truck inorder to get rid of her which by the way her parents were divorced and he didn't want her to be with him, later the police sent her to the
Social Centers For Children.
Regarding to the mentioned story by you, iam really glad to hear the happy closure of the story of this family which i can feel how his mother is happy now
I hope every family that faced the same problem will have the same happy closure .
Finally kidnapping children is a one face from the many faces of terror against humanity which has to be fought against ,as well as political terror

Comment by Mohamed Hussein on October 11, 2010 at 13:12: Really this topic is touched my heart!
I can't imagine my life without my child's smile, God bless them!
So I planned to participate in any program can help any parents are facing this disaster.

Bob , thank you for the useful topic ,
in my point of view the ignorance with safety standards is the first & main reason of the missing children .. for example .. after reading such blog found out that my daughter who is four years old knows only her full name, she doesn't know my cell phone number or our home address details or my workplaces' name. I was shocked & asked myself what she can do if she missed?
I visited EMCOR website & I learnt more things from their tips & followed it .
My advice to all as found out from reading such blog that everybody has to know more & more about the safety standards to can keep his child around him.

Comment by Mr. Bob on October 8, 2010 at 23:54: RHT,
I agree.
they can also be taken for child labor. Thank you.

Nazi366. The most important point is what you just said. Either way they are endangered when they are no longer home. There are too many people who will addict them to drugs or force them into prostitution for survival.

Still the parent loves the child and wants them back to protect. But the children may think that they have done bad things and would not be forgiven so may not come home. Many times the bodies will be found after a year or two of life living on the streets and violence or drugs finish them off.

Comment by Mr. Bob on October 8, 2010 at 11:20: Nadira,
The missing children signs are expensive the way they are made here. They could be made more cheaply if they were switched out to a new one each month. That way a paper sign could be made without too much worry of it coming apart in a 4 week period.

I think EMCOR would be willing to share some information on setting up a program if they received a formal request from a government agency. The reason the signs are made the way they are is because people do not want to put something on their vehicle that will leave glue and torn bits of paper when removed. Obviously a company can make their own decision about company vehicles, but even the easily removable signs are objectionable to many private individuals. I had tried to get everyone to agree to display them, but people did not want to have a sign on their own car : (

Comment by Mr. Bob on October 8, 2010 at 11:13: @ Herry- Yes Herry, I think it is very widespread. What do you think is the main cause in your area?
@ Deuce - We do see some cases where the parents are too involved with drinking or other behaviors and the small child may wander away with them not noticing. Sometimes they may walk into a street or into deep water. There are Child Protective Agencies in many places that will have the children legally removed and put in another home if parents are too careless and endanger the child. We have seen in recent months people forgetting the small child in a car out in the heat. I have wondered if some missing children may be killed in such a way and then hidden to avoid the penalties for leaving them to die.

Comment by rht on October 8, 2010 at 7:32: child labour might be the another reason for missing children

Mod Comment by Nadira on October 8, 2010 at 6:44: It is a problem here too,i do not know the depth of it as all cases may not be highlighted.

There are people who kidnap kids to boon their business, BEGGING!
Then those who steal them in their cradle from hospitals,to substitute their lost baby, so many cases for child recruitment, porn and so it goes
Interesting blog, the idea of companies and citizens helping out out would be effective
indeed.

Comment by deuce666 on October 8, 2010 at 6:11: Very often chlidren are missing only because of carelessness and heedlessness of their parents. Kids are often neglected and as a result - they are missing.

Comment by Herry Susanto on October 8, 2010 at 4:06: The children kidnapping is a problem in my country as well. It's nice knowing that some of the missing children are found.