International Missing Children’s Day (25th of May) is commemorated globally each year to raise awareness about the issue of missing children and share a message of hope to their families.
For this year’s campaign, we were inspired by a poem often attributed to Ernest Hemingway – “For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never worn.” – about parents of children who passed away very young.
On 22 May, we transformed Place du Luxembourg, in front of the European Parliament, by laying out hundreds of children’s shoes to spell out “116 000″ — the EU-wide hotline for missing children. This striking visual served as a memorial, a symbol of remembrance and hope, and a call to action.
How did it go?
We captured the moment in a moving video, featuring reflections from:
- MEP Evin Incir, Co-Chair of the Intergroup on Children’s Rights
- MEP Saskia Bricmont, Member of the Intergroup on Children’s Rights
- Marie-Cécile Rouillon, European Commission Coordinator for the Rights of the Child
- Lisa Marie Schaumburg, Youth Board Member, Missing Children Europe
- Aagje Ieven, Secretary General, Missing Children Europe
Their voices joined together — alongside EU officials, members of the civil society child rights community, and our friends from Les Petits Riens, without whom this memorial would not have been possible — to honour missing children and remind Europe of the ongoing need to protect its youngest citizens.
The campaign's over now -but you can still support us!
Want to do more?
Help us raise funds to continue the support and coordination of the European network of 116 000 hotlines and the implementation of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM), an essential tool to guarantee quality service for all hotlines across Europe.
Each donation of 25EUR will help us maintain a monthly CRM license for one hotline. This allows us to keep track of details and updates on missing children cases and ease cross-border cooperation between hotlines operating in different countries, to better prevent and efficiently find missing children whilst support their families.