I am taking part in the #blogging4madeline campaign this year. Yes, I can just hear some of you sigh, begin to switch off and think about clicking away, but just wait a minute and spare a few minutes for the kids who have all gone missing, including Ben Needham, April Jones and many other nameless and faceless children. What if they were your children?
If your children had been taken, no matter what the circumstances, would you click away then?
This isn’t about the parents, or the press, or the stories of who did or didn’t do anything right or wrong.
It’s about the children and nobody else.
I have watched people crucifying April Jones parents for having her out playing late at night, or the McCann parents for leaving the children alone, but neither of those things changes the facts that the kids are still missing. I think that we would all clutch at hope of any kind if our children went missing. I’ve accepted that I don’t have to agree with what parents might or might not have done to offer my support with helping to find those missing kids.
I’m posting for the kids.
Madeleine went missing from Praia da Luz, Portugal on Thursday 3rd May 2007.
I agreed to join the blogging4madeleine campaign to raise awareness that Madeleine McCann is still missing and to spread the word about her and the other missing children around the world. There are thousands of children missing from the UK, but far too few people know about any of them.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (run by the police) operates a website called Missing Kids UK that shows many of the children who are missing. I’ve added their widget to my blog footer. If you want to add the same as mine which is smaller than theirs, the code is.
Why are we posting now?
- Children deserve not to be forgotten.
- There are thousands of British children missing.
- Madeline McCanns birthday is the 12th May 2013. She would have been 10 years old.
- The 25th May is International Missing Childrens Day. Get involved over on Facebook.
Contact information to report any sightings or information of Madeleine and other missing children.
- Your local police force immediately, AND
- +44 845 838 4699 or investigation@findmadeleine.com
- OR Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555111
- OR www.crimestoppers-uk.org
This is what Madeline could have looked like at age 9.
If you’re interested in joining the #Blogging4Madeleine campaign please contact CJ from A Mummy’s View blog via Twitter, Facebook or by emailing amummysview@gmail.com.
I’ll leave you with part of the message from Kate McCann on her website which stated that most children who are missing in the way Madeline was are for sexual exploitation. I found the statement she made further on very disturbing.
“What are the benefits for our children of being in a European Union where several member countries offer child pornography as a LEGAL past time? The most vulnerable members of our society are our children and they deserve better than this. Lack of sex offender registers, lack of reliable tracking systems for known offenders and no CRB check requirements , not even for those working with children are other major areas of concern within many parts of Europe. My eyes have certainly been opened to a whole new world out there – a very worrying one.”
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