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. So later this month, we’ll be laying out hundreds of children’s shoes in front of the European Parliament on Place du Luxembourg, spelling out the number “116 000” – the EU-wide hotline for missing children – as a symbol of remembrance and hope.
At this memorial, we will record and later put together a powerful, emotional video that includes testimony from MEPs, staff from the European Commission, the Missing Children Europe Secretary-General, and a member from our Youth Board.
How can you join us?
1) Join us on 22 May, at 12:45pm at Place du Luxembourg, in front of the European Parliament! Bring yourself, and bring a friend.
2) If you can’t make it – there’s still a way to support us! You can use this social media toolkit to share about the event far and wide on your social networks.
3) Share the final video (when it’s ready) and spread the word about International Missing Children’s Day with your loved ones!
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.