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

Kayla’s 16th birthday was a couple of weeks ahead and she wanted to see her old friends. On August 11, 2009 she accepted a ride from her brother’s friend to the local McDonald’s, where her best friend was working. She phoned her mom early afternoon to say that she was going to her father’s place and it was agreed that they would talk later. That was the last contact Hope Sprenger had with Kayla and it will soon be one year since she went missing.

Her brother’s friend had picked Kayla up at her father’s house at about 8:30 p.m. and they arrived at McDonald’s half an hour later. Kayla ran inside, chatted briefly with her friend and then left, saying that she was going to ride around in the car for a while. At around 10 p.m. her brother’s friend says he dropped Kayla off at her boyfriend’s house in Wausau, about 14 miles from Antigo, where she got out of his vehicle and walked toward a house she said was that of her boyfriend.

Hope Sprenger and the police have spent the past 10 months retracing Kayla’s movements on the night of August 11. Questions were raised why Kayla would have requested a ride to that house which had been condemned weeks earlier and was undergoing renovations. No one else saw Kayla get out of the car but investigators were able to confirm that the 24-year old driver returned at midnight to his parents’ house in Deerbrook, about 45 minutes away.

Cadaver dogs turned up no trail and no scent of Kayla at or near the boyfriend’s home. The car she was riding in was seized and processed for evidence. Police still have the car, but investigators will not comment on the evidence collected. Her brother’s friend subsequently said that both he and Kayla had smoked marijuana before he left her and he was charged with recklessly endangering her safety.

The search for Kayla continues, help find my child are now working for Kayla’s family to help raise awareness online.

Rewards are being offered by Kayla’s family and Langlade County Crimestoppers for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for her disappearance.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Antigo Police Department (Wisconsin) 1-715-627-6411
or Langlande County Crimestoppers: 627-NAIL
or Marathon County Sheriff’s Department at 261-1200

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.

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10561675.stm

The launch of this safety application follows lots of negotiation between Ceop and Facebook and once installed it appears on their homepage to say that “they are in control online”.

“By adding this application, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCeop button which should provide reassurance to every parent with teenagers on the site.”

This is certainly progress as Facebook initially resisted Ceop’s attempt to interfere with their own reporting system but it would seem both sides are now happy with what they have come up with.

“We still have the Facebook reporting system and by having a pre-packaged application that users play an active part in, you not only help keep them safe, it makes all of their friends aware too, and acts as a viral awareness campaign.
“Ultimately though, this makes for a safer environment for users and that’s the most important part,” she added.

Let’s hope this partnership between Ceop and Facebook leads to our children being safer online. However, it can never take the place of careful vigilance by parents and discussing the dangers with our children should never be forgotten and should not be replaced by online safety buttons entirely.

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!

Dear xxxx

Ken Spooner is a British national, he is a law abiding citizen, and he is also a loving father to two little boys, Devlan 4 and Caelan who is 2. Both of these children are British nationals.

For the last 18 months Ken has been fighting the fight of his life, a fight that has cost him in excess of £150 000 in travel expenses, legal costs and lost earnings.

In October of 2008, Zanetta Nyendwa, a Zambian national, and Ken’s former girlfriend and mother of his two sons, took their two boys on, on what she described as a holiday to her home land, Zambia. She phoned Ken, the day after her arrival to advise that she was not returning to the UK.

The British High Court issued an order for the Children’s return to the UK; Ken had to travel to Zambia to execute it. The order was successful, and Ken was given permission to take the children home, however when Ken and the children arrived at Lusaka International Airport, they were met by Zanetta and her lawyers. The children were taken from Ken and handed over to Zanetta, with the help of the Zambian police.

On the 16th June, the Zambian Supreme Court, set aside the English order, that Ken Spooner wanted registered and enforced in Zambia, effectively dismissing the English High Court Ruling.

Ken is still being denied access to his sons, he is faced with returning to Britain without his two British children and furthermore, as the Zambian Court has dismissed the English Order, he will not be able to return to Zambia for 12 months once his visa expires next week.

The net result of this, as is usually the case where countries ignore court orders, is that these two British children will be lost to their Father and their Homeland indefinitely.

I hereby respectfully ask that assistance is afforded to Mr Spooner via the British Consulate in Lusaka who are aware of him and his and the boys plight.

I look forward to hearing from you, on how you will be taking this issue forward.

Kind Regards

The Missing Boy

The Missing Boy is a novel about a 13 year old boy, Dan, who goes missing quite inexplicably. It describes both his internal and external experiences and the impact upon his family. On the surface, this bears much similarity with my son Andrew’s case: after over 2 ½ years, we can only continue to guess what made him leave our family all that time ago when he had just turned 14.

I will not give away any further details of the plot of this book, more can be found on the author’s website http://www.rachelbillington.com/ and a review from the Daily Telegraph may be found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/b…on-review.html The novel can be purchased from Telegraph books via a link on this page.

I am pleased to note that the Telegraph review talks of a “modern preoccupation” with the issue of missing kids. This indicates perhaps that the scale of the problem – 100,000 kids a year in the UK – is finally being noticed. The reviewer makes comment about the “improbability” of the police response, but sadly, this is not as improbable as one may like to think. Rachel’s novel is exceptionally welcome in continuing to raise awareness of this enormous problem in our society and its impact upon families.

The official launch of the novel is on the 10th June 2010 and Rachel has very kindly said she will speak about our son at this event. We are enormously grateful to her for her concern and willingness to help in this way.

Kevin Gosden

Andrew Gosden

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.

'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.findandrew.com/

http://www.helpfindmychild.net/andrew-thompson

http://www.causes.com/causes/179688?…r_id=111605732

http://findandrewthompsoneurope2010.blogspot.com/