We provide a service parents hope they never need.
Taya
Co Founder of Help Find My Child, Mum of two and all round computer geek. Help Find My child was created originally by a group of Mums who had been touched by the disappearance of a little girl while on holiday, they used their skills to help spread word and joined other groups doing the same, from this small start they were contacted by other families desperate for support in using Internet technologies and the online communities to get word out, and so Help Find My Child was formed.
Homepage: http://www.helpfindmychild.net
Posts by Taya
Helping Hands for Missing Here to Stay
Aug 22nd
We were thrilled to announce this month that Help Find My Child is now an officially registered Charity. Three and half years ago, individually, our hearts drew us to the case of an abducted little girl and a devastated family trying to find her. For some, time almost stood still around us, imagining their pain when looking at our own children, feeling the need to just “do something” to help.
We’ve taken quite a journey together since then; our close knit team have seen both the worst and the best the internet has to offer. We were shocked at the daily struggle parents were enduring, figuring out systems and wondering how to get people to notice their child’s face in the crowd.
It’s been such a busy year preparing documents, taking legal advice but the elation felt when we heard the news our status was granted from our very first application, to the realisation we can reach out even further has been overwhelming, really its an amazing achievement for a small group of online strangers who just wanted to “do something”.
Such amazing support we have had for all corners of the globe as we explore the possibilities of new technologies and social media in the search for missing children. The original online ethics of open, free information exchange, community and collaboration are still going strong. It really does restore your faith in humanity. Please do continue to get in touch with your thoughts, skills and service offerings to help us go further.
A special thanks from all us to our parents such as Kevin, Stephen, Ken, and Glendene for their humbling support and inspirational work while going through such pain, you and your children are never far from our thoughts and prayers.
So whats next for us all, the future holds a lot of hard work, we hope a lot of joy too for our families, we have several meetings and interesting developments this month planned, and now free of the paperwork everyone can focus on what were all here to do. Thanks to the special people who are our HFMC volunteers, giving up free time to help families they may never meet, just because they can.
Personally I doubt I can ever express my gratitude enough to the HFMC team for their faith and selfless dedication from the moment I uttered the infamous words “I have an idea…”
online communities and technology find missing children!
Snippets from our press release.
Help Find My Child”, a new type of charity working with families to locate missing children worldwide. Specialising in combining the latest technologies with the power of online communities, such as Facebook and Twitter, this small charity aims to make a big impact in the global search for missing children.
Professionals, in the fields of technology and child protection, have welcomed this new service: Mark Williams-Thomas a leading child protection expert and criminologist writes:
Social Media sites are an integral part of our lives and as such it is vital that we use them to their full advantage. I therefore fully support Help Find My Child and the excellent work they are doing in using the Internet and social networking sites to reach out to locate missing children.
If there is a place online where lots of people gather, then Help Find My Child wants to have a presence there too, where it can actively engage with communities in order to increase visibility for cases. They have already built up thousands of followers across their network of sites. Become part of the YouTube’s nonprofit programme and have a cyber-office in the 3D world Second life.
Time is crucial when a child goes missing; statistics tell us that those initial hours are vital. Factual information needs to be circulated as quickly as possible. We aim to provide the means to do that online for police and family members alike as many experts believe exposure maximises the chances of a child being located and recovered safely.
Kevin Gosden Father of Missing Teen Andrew Gosden writes: “Help Find My Child has enabled me to publicise Andrew’s missing status to targeted audiences in a way that is not possible through newspapers, radio and television exposure. They have been such a supportive group to me on a personal and emotional level too. During some of the most painful times, this group has given me the will to go on and to continue searching for my son 
Harry needs help to find his mummy
Jul 22nd
Harry will be two years old on Thursday, July 22, 2010 and his mummy has already bought his presents.. Sadly, unless a miracle happens, Kristi McDougall will not be with her son on his birthday and will not be able give him his presents herself.
Kristi, age 31, was last seen on Sunday, June 19, 2010. She dropped Harry off at his at his grandparents’ home that morning and 
was last seen by friends in Hornchurch, New South Wales, Australia at about 1p.m. that day. She said she was going to Bankstown and has not been seen since. Her car was found two days later parked in a No Stopping zone in Ermington.
Kristi is a devoted mother who lives for her son. She had already bought presents and decorations for his birthday. Her family are adamant she would never voluntarily be away from her son for an extended period of time.
Harry is now being cared for by his grandparents.but misses his mummy. When shown her photo, he points at her and and says, ‘That’s my mummy.’
For Harry’s sake, if anyone knows anything about the whereabouts of Kristi Mc Dougall,. we ask them to contact detectives at Strike Force Ashbridge via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
We sometimes get asked to help raise awarness for missing adults like Kirsti, so on our forum we have created a little area were people can create threads to let others know about missing adults they are tryin to find. You can click here to read any new news that comes in on the search for Kristi McDougall.
Child Trafficking : Republic of Ireland declared among worst E.U. states for controls
Jul 13th
An international report issued by a child protection organisation (Ecpat) says that the Republic of Ireland was being used as a transit point for trafficking to the UK, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic and the ferry crossings from the Republic to Wales being attractive gateways for traffickers
The report said that the Republic of Ireland was among the worst performing states in the EU with children as young as three years old being bought and sold.
Although no reliable figures exist for the numbers trafficked in Ireland, victims’ groups warn it is a growing problem and are particularly concerned about the number of children who go missing from Irish state care – 441 over the past 10 years.
Jillian Van Turnhout, chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance in Ireland said: We are finding that some children are actually trafficked into Ireland and then moved up across the border into the north of Ireland or across by ferry links to Wales into the UK.
“It concerns us that Ireland would be seen to be a weak point in a chain. We need to stand together. It is a global issue. We need, as countries, to stand together.
Campaigners have called on the Irish government to introduce clear systems to help children who have been trafficked and those at risk.
Source: BBC News
Mystic Salazar Home Safely after 2 years
Jul 11th
Six-year-old Mystic Salazar of Clifton was supposed to return from an eight-hour visit with her biological father in August 2008. Mystic was meant to be spending that Sunday evening getting ready for her first day of first grade.
She never got to school – her father, who we understand played no part in Mystic’s life until a custody request was filed, never return to Clifton where he was supposed to hand Mystic back to the family she has lived with since she was a toddler.
We started assisting where we could in the search for Mystic in February 2009 by raising awareness online with regular news updates and circulating details through our network of sites and widgets.
Jennifer and Amie have worked tirelessly to find their little girl and bring her home, many groups and individuals after hearing Mystic’s story have helped along the way.
What joy when the wonderful news broke that Mystic had been found, she was safe, and best of all was coming home!
Mystic was located in Northern Michigan, USA, 1,500 miles from her home in Colorado by the eagle eye’d Sheriff Deputy Mike Wiers from Missaukee County. He became suspicious when spotting some girls clothing while visiting the trailer mystic had been kept in by 
her biological father since kidnapping her from her custodial parents two years before. After some investigtive work Weirs was able to confrim the little girl was indeed missing Mystic Salazar.
Sheriff Deputy Wiers has not only reunited Mystic with her custodial parents but colorador news tells us, he is working with U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI to try and ensure charges can be filed against Mystics abductors, rather than it be dealt with as a civil matter. We think he has gone above and behond for Mystic and her family and we would like to thank him and his team for all their help.
“To me, that was unacceptable,” Wiers said. “These people have damaged this 7-year-old girl. Now, by taking her away from the only parents she has known her life and filling her with lies and making her live under an assumed name, there should be some type of punishment for that, and I’m going to do everything in my power to see that to a conclusion.” Wiers said.
You can watch the interview with Deputy Wiers with 8 news below
A non profit group in America Flew Jennifier and Amie to be reunited with there little girl. Mystic was home safe and sound just in time to celebrate her 8th birthday with a huge party. We received some precious photos and a lovely message from Jennifer which you can see in our latest newsletter ,
I’m sure you join us in wishing Mystic and her family every happiness and all the best for their future together!
- Never Let Go Of Hope
Canadian Children Internationally Abducted and Missing
Jun 6th
Newmarket, ON – Canadian Father of two internationally abducted missing children is releasing 2 online PSA videos in the languages of English, Polish, German and French in hopes that someone has seen his children somewhere in Europe and will report what they know to local Police authorities in their country.
In order to achieve world-wide coverage of these online videos, Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc. and Sony in the United States has licensed the father, Stephen Watkins, a one-hit-wonder song by Jimmy Harnen with Synch which hit the US billboard charts in the top #10 in 1989. Mr. Harnen was contacted by Mr. Watkins directly in November 2009 asking his permission to use his song “Where Are You Now” for this special campaign and Mr. Harnen himself and associated publishing companies paved the way by providing their written consent to Sony for the tracks use in helping to find Mr. Watkins Missing Children.
To see the PSA Music video see: http://www.WATKINS-MISSING-CHILDREN.com
Mr. Watkins sons, ALEXANDER & CHRISTOPHER WATKINS, was selected to be ONE-of-FIVE Canadian cases which was highlighted in the 2010 International Missing Children’s Day on May 25th within the 17 participating Global Missing Children’s Network (GMCN) nations, which is sharing all the Missing Children cases in each country in hopes to locate these missing children. On behalf of all member countries, the Australian Police took the lead in this year’s effort and produced the world-wide PSA commercial, which will be shown in each country, and created the official website for all the featured missing children cases here:
http://www.HelpBringThemHome.org.au
International Missing Children’s Day 2010 – Official PSA Commercial
Stephen Watkins is the father and sole custodial parent to Alexander and Christopher Watkins. He has spent the past 15-months working with authorities to locate the abducted boys. Stephen Watkins is enduring a nightmare that no parent should have to live through. It is believed that the abductor and the boys were driven across the U.S border on March 8, 2009 during a weekend access visit with the mother aided by the maternal grandfather, Tadeusz (Ted) Ustaszewski. Since that time, Mr. Ustaszewski has been charged with “aiding and abetting” and his trial has been set for December 13, 2010.
In September 2009, a rare INTERPOL “Red Notice” was issued by the Canadian Government seeking the arrest of the abducting Mother. However, it wasn’t until in January of this year, Mr. Watkins was able to obtain a Court Order in Poland which allowed the Polish Police to actively search out the abducing parent and ordering a nation-wide police effort.
It is important to note, however, that even though the Polish Courts have Ordered the Polish Police to search, NO Polish investigator or officer has been assigned to this case which is making the sharing of information by enforcement authorities and searching very difficult.
U.S. Homeland Security have confirmed that Edyta Ustaszewska – Watkins and the boys – then ages 7 and 4 – boarded a flight to Germany. They have not been heard from since and are believed to be in Poland, Austria, Germany or somewhere inEurope.
Mr. Watkins has been petitioning the Canadian Government for changes to its regulation – specifically in two areas – to prevent similar incidents in the future. His ex-wife was able to take the boys out of the country even though the Courts had ordered:
- That her passport be canceled due to non-payment of support;
- That she surrender the boys’ passports;
- That the boys not leave Ontario; and
- That no new passports be issued
Mrs. Edyta Ustaszewska – Watkins, who claimed in Court that she had lost the boys’ passports, apparently used them – and her own ‘Canceled’ passport – to enter the U.S., board a airline and flew from there to Germany.
U.S. Homeland Security has confirmed that all three flew on Canadian passports.
In this instance, foreign custom officers failed to ask for an ‘authorization’ letter – this is required when minors travel with one parent. In the case of Mr. Watkins’ sons, custom officers in two countries in addition to the Northwest/Delta Airlines, failed to ensure that the abducting parents’ Canadian passport was valid, as it had been cancelled by the Canadian Government and confirmed suspended 42-days prior to the abduction onJanuary 26, 2009.
Mr. Watkins originally obtained a Joint Custody Order in 2006. In November, 2007, the courts ordered the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto (CCAS) to remove the boys from Mrs. Watkins care and her parental authority was suspended. On Jan. 29, 2008 their father was given Custody Care by the courts and after a lengthy trial Stephen Watkins was awarded Final Sole Custody of his sons on Jan. 26, 2009. Six weeks later, Alexander and Christopher Watkins were abducted. Both little boys were diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; the older son has been diagnosed with High Functioning Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
This is the first known Canadian case of a concerned parent involving a missing children’s organization before an abduction. Mr. Watkins contacted Child Find Ontario in September, 2008, when he saw signs that his ex-wife was going to abduct his sons. Ms. Terry Smith, case director of Child Find Ontario has been assisting in searching for the Watkins Missing Children.
CHILD FIND ONTARIO and MISSING CHILDREN SOCIETY OF CANADA are supporting Mr. Watkins in Canada; ITAKA Centre for Missing People in Poland (ITAKA Centrum Poszukiwan Ludzi Zaginionych) is assisting in Poland.
Mr. Watkins hopes that the release of the PSA abduction story video of his sons in the languages of English, French, Polish and German, will create the media attention to his case will lead to the safe location and return of his little boys and also promote public awareness to evoke change in Canadian regulations. “My wish is through simple changes within Canadian regulations that I can help to prevent another parent going through the same trauma I feel every day since my boys have been gone.”
Mr. Watkins has documented the issues which led to the abduction and provides more information on how to help find Alexander Watkins and Christopher Watkins on his website, http://www.Watkins-Missing-Children.com . He has also created pages on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and a blog with the assistance of two world online organizations, FOREVER SEARCHING and HELP FIND MY CHILD.
Setting the Wheels in Motion to Find His Missing Son
Jun 4th
'On the Road' To Find Andrew John Thompson European Cycle Trip 2010
The last 2 years have been a living nightmare for Ken Thompson since his estranged wife Melinda abducted their only child and absconded to Europe. To make matters worse there has been no trace whatsoever of her and Andrew since they flew to Frankfurt in Germany, which has left Ken bereft. Added to this the mountains of bureaucracy that has had to be climbed in regards to the red tape involved in these situations, Ken has now decided to take matters into own his hands, or perhaps it should be legs, to move things forward.
He has now decided to take himself on a Europe wide tour on his bicycle to raise awareness of his son’s abduction and also to raise the profile of missing, abducted and exploited children in general. This cycle ride will take him take him to…..
“Hong Kong, UK, France, Belgium, The Netherlands (The Hague), Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy and many other countries…”
As you can imagine this is not a task he has taken on lightly, so much so that he has given up the job he loves as a fireman to give this trip all he has.
All of us here at Help Find my Child would like Ken to know that we back him in this cause 100% and wish him well in his quest to find Andrew. We would like to take this opportunity to ask our regular visitors and anyone else who comes upon this blog to lend their support to Ken by, at the very least, reading the circumstances of Andrew’s abduction and doing anything they can, however small, to help Ken locate his son. This may simply take the form of eg. joining his Facebook group, following his own personal blogspot, putting up a poster of Andrew if you live in Europe, or just raising awareness of Andrew’s case and that of all missing children. Your help is very much appreciated.
Find out more:
http://www.helpfindmychild.net/andrew-thompson
http://www.causes.com/causes/179688?…r_id=111605732
http://findandrewthompsoneurope2010.blogspot.com/
International Missing Children’s Day 2010
May 31st
Have you seen any of these children, please do take a moment to share out the poster its a campaign supported by several groups, who are also supporting Andrew Thompson’s Father in his Cycle across Europe to raise awareness for his missing son and others like him.
Missing Children & Social Networking
Mar 1st
We received an email tonight thanking our volunteers for helping disseminate information so rapidly for missing Chelsea King. The email also informed us of a blog article wrote by Mirna Bard highlighting the unique work we are doing for missing children.
Mirna Bard is a highly regarded Internet marketing expert. She is a consultant, a mentor, a coach, an educator, an entrepreneur, a public speaker and we are honoured she choose to blog about our work in the article titled A Whole New Use for Social Networking
Social media has been used for many things, from dating to business promotion, but now it can help save lives as well. An organization called Help Find My Child has set up a system to help parents of missing children get the necessary information out fast on multiple networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, among others. It’s just one way to make sure that social networking sites are giving back to families and helping them find their missing children.
When a child is missing time is crucial, statistics tell us that those initial minutes and hours are vital, its therefore imperative that factual information gets out immediately to the right places. This maximises the chances of the child been located, of facts surrounding the circumstances to be circulated early on, and retrieval of information from potential witnesses while its fresh in the minds eye.
For older missing children its often the case they have a online circle of friends who may not be aware their friend is missing until they see alerts like ours. We target our information to where it will be the most effective and our growing community of supporters and volunteers are key in the success of our messages getting through.
Our service is one parents hope they will never need, and one we wish wasn’t ever called on, we might not be able to guarantee the outcomes but we aim to ensure that no family has to struggle to raise awareness online for their missing child alone.
Scottish Parents to learn of sex offenders
Feb 28th
Today I read the news that Scottish parents are to be given the right to learn whether people who have access to their children are convicted sex offenders. With 3,100 registered sex offenders were known to be living in Scotland in 2008 this is welcomed news. The news of a country wide roll out comes after a successful 6 month trial in the Tayside area, where the parent of any child under the age of 18 was able to register an interest in any individual who has unsupervised access to their child.
“Scotland is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of its approach to the management of sex offenders and we will continue to strengthen this approach.
“We have made progress in recent years to toughen up safeguards in place – such as strengthening measures to assess, manage and minimise the risks posed by sex offenders – but I am determined to go even further.”
I fully expect the roll-out process to begin later this year and for all of Scotland to be covered in a matter of months thereafter 
Kenny MacAskill
Justice secretary
There is still much work in this area to be done to further reduce the risk to our children from sex offenders but this is progress in the right direction.
Help Us Reach Our Goal
Feb 22nd
Help Find My Child provide a service parents hope they will never need. Now we need your help to go further.
For parents the trauma of having a child missing, abducted or exploited is perhaps the worst nightmare anyone can endure. The distress to the child and all involved as time goes on is unimaginable to most.
We raise awareness for missing children and assist with the the search by using the latest online technologies. Supporting families with practical and technical skills for as long as it takes to locate their child.
Click to visit and donate here – http://bit.ly/a2AIIH all donations are secure via paypal.
Our Founding Mission is aearching for missing children online to save lives and reduce the distress to their families. This year with your support we hope to become an official charity to be able to help our families further,
Please consider donating via paypal through the secure donation panel to the right of this page, every pound really helps reach our target
Thank you so much
HFMC Team
