COOPERATION: THE KEYS TO FINDING MISSING CHILDREN - There are over fifty Non-Profit Child Find Organizations, in the United States that offer services to parents of missing and abducted children. In Europe there are more than twenty-five Non Governmental Organizations, that offer the same services. In Canada there are five. Why donít parents of missing and abducted children know about these organizations and the services they offer? Why when a child is missing are the parents left to wonder where the help they need will come from?
The Answer is simple
In the early eighties, Congress authorized funding for The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This new organization was to serve as our National Clearinghouse for missing and abducted children as well as offer a toll free phone number for the reporting and sighting of missing and abducted children. Today the National Center has the ability to instantly disseminate information and pictures of missing and abducted children to all fifty state clearinghouses as well as over 17,000 police departments. Their ability to disseminate information to law enforcement is state of the art. However, the National Center does not disseminate the same information to any of the non-profit child find organizations that may be able to assist a parent in the return of their child. This is a major break down in communications.- Parents denied much needed resources
No one thought about how a parent of a missing and abducted child would find these much-needed resources. In other words, when a child goes missing how does a parent know what to do, whom to call, and where to turn for help? How do they know there is a National Center as well as over fifty state clearinghouses and over fifty non-profit organizations that may be able to assist them in the recovery of their children? If their child was taken out of the country how would they know who in a foreign country could assist them?- Tough questions that need to be answered
Why donít we have a federal law or policy requiring the listing, in all phone books, of the phone numbers for the non-profit organizations that can assist a parent when their children go missing? This listing should be right there with the police and fire department listings under emergencies, but they are not, why?- All police departments should be supplied with a listing of ALL the child find organizations in the United States, but they are not, why? This information should be disseminated by the National Clearinghouse, but it is not, why? When a child goes missing and a police report is taken these valuable resources should be given to the parents, but they are not, Why?
- Concerns of parents of missing children addressed.
In August of 1999, The Committee for Missing Children, a Georgia non-profit organization brought together a group of non-profits, federal and State agencies, lawyers, and professionals that deal with the subject of missing and abducted children. The group of sixty two people met in Crystal City, VA, just out side Washington, DC, for two and a half days The objective of the meeting was to develop a handbook that would not only address the concerns mentioned above but all concerns involving the recovery and return of missing children.- The Committee for Missing Children, a little history
The Committee for Missing Children started in 1991 as a photo partner for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We had approached the National Center to see if they needed help in putting pictures of family abducted children into the schools. The projects we started back then have placed over 1.5 billion images of missing children into the schools with the name and 800 number of the National Center on each sheet. The 1.5 billion images featured over fifteen hundred children. Riverside Paper of Appelton, Wisconsin, puts between forty and fifty million pages of missing children into sixty two percent of the American schools every year. Each sheet has eight missing children. Today, Riverside Paper is the largest distributor of family abducted children into the schools and is the Committee for Missing Childrenís largest photo partner.- Advocating for parents rights
In 1995, The Committee for Missing Children started to work directly with parents who have had their children go missing. It was not long before we realized that there did not seem to be a sharing of information between the non-profits, including the National Center. All the organizations were doing what they do best but there was very little sharing of resources and ideas. We realized that the only way to solve this was to build a spirit of cooperation between all the organizations. The meeting in Crystal City was an attempt to bring together a group of people who deal with missing and abducted children as part of their job. We wanted to put together a group of people who cared about these children and their parents. I believe we accomplished that objective.- The need for a national meeting was embraced by all
Charles Goolsby from Voice of America and Mary Jo Grotenrath from The Office of International Affairs were the first to sign on to the idea of a meeting between parents of missing children and the agencies and professionals charged with the responsibility of helping them recover their children. Other agencies soon followed.- The Committee for Missing Children paid the way for twenty-five parents to attend the meeting. The parents represented stranger abductions, family abductions runaways and international abductions. Some of the parents have recovered their children and some had not. Some have had their child recovered deceased.
- The parents in attendance
Walter Benda, Jodi Carlsen, Patricia Roush, Tom Johnson, Tom Sylvester, Kristine Uhlman, Barbara Kurth, Monica Bourget, Jim Dingeman, Jody Himebaugh, Jean Henderson, Larry Whyth, Kim Swartz, Tommy Addison, Melaine Addison, Audry Sanderford, Judy Gifford-Tosh, Floyd Tosh, Violaine Delahais, Cindy Miller, Joe Howard, Bruce Morton, Vic Shoemaker, Nettie Shoemaker, and Miriam Hernandez-Davis.- The Government came out in force
Department of State, Office of Childrenís Issues (Ann McGahuey and Bill Fleming), the Department of Justiceís Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Ron Laney), Interpol (Sarah McKee, Cindy Quinn, Al Finch), Voice of America (Charles Goolsby), The US Marshals Service (Lonnie Brown) The Office of International Affairs (Mary Jo Grotenrath, Deborah Gaynus), NCMEC (Jennifer Penta, Meredith Morrison), National Runaway Switchboard (Lora Thomas) and the International Division of the FBI (Greg Boosalis)- Legal and professional
Linda Shay Gardner, from the Law Office of Frederick P. Rooney, Helena Mizrahi an attorney from the DC area, Doug Darnell who specializes in helping people with ìParental Alienationî, Darrell Mavis, an assistant District Attorney from Los Angles, John Brodie representing local and State law enforcement, and John Snyder, a legislative consultant were present and contributed to the over all success of the meeting.
The Non-Profit Organizations
Another group of individuals we could not have done without was the non-profit child find organizations. We were lucky to have the following group of people lend their talents and input. Child Quest International (Madeline Knight), Vanished Childrenís Alliance (Billi Wilkerson), The International Center for the Search and Recovery of Missing Children (Amy Samsal), Child Watch of North America (Nancy Morin), Help the Kids (Deatra Eichinger), and from Canada, The Missing Childrenís Network (Patrick Bourgeron)
Special Thanks
In addition to all the talent listed above we also had two special guests, Don Putterman represented the Board of Directors of the Committee for Missing Children and a young lady who just escaped from Saudi Arabia where she was taken by her non-custodial father. Her name is Yasmeen, her mom, Miriam Hernandez-Davis, calls her Yas, Yasmeen prefers her new name, Dria. Dria spoke to the group about her life in Saudi, how she pulled off her escaped and what life was like as a young Christian girl living in Saudi Arabia- From Washington to langenselbold
After the Washington, DC meeting, we realized that we were going to have to develop a series of ìcountry guidesî that could help a parent of an internationally abducted child function within the country the child was taken to. It made since to have a meeting in Europe to see if the European organizations were interested in working with us to develop a European handbook for parents of missing and abducted children. This handbook would supplement the handbook we were developing for the US.- A little more history
Committee for Missing Children has an office in Langenselbold, Germany. Christaine Lops runs the office for us. Christaine had her two little girls abducted from Germany by her former husband, and the Committee for Missing Children was instrumental in supplying information that led to the children being located in Augusta, Georgia, after two and a half years.- In December 1997, the girls were ordered returned to Germany by the United States Federal Court in Augusta, Georgia. This decision was upheld by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia. The girls and their mom returned to Germany in May of 1998. The girls were returned under the guidelines set forth in the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction
- It's May 2000 and we are in Germany
It made since than, that we ask Christaine to take on the task communicating with all European NGOís, (Non Governmental Organizations) to see if there was an interest in helping us develop a handbook and country guides that would assist a parent who has had a child taken across international boarders. The answer came back a resounding yes. Christaine then set about organizing the meeting.- On May 19-21, 2000, the first European Parent Advocacy Meeting was held in the little town of Langenselbold. The Mayor of Langenselbold, Heiko Kasseckert, opened the meeting. We were honored to have the Mayor take time from his busy schedule to wish us much success with the meeting, as well as speak very passionately about the subject of missing and abducted children. It was refreshing to have a government official take such a genuine interest in our cause.
- The meeting was set up much like the meeting in Washington, DC. The Committee for Missing Children once again paid for the parents of missing and abducted children to attend the meeting The following is a list of parents who attended the meeting and the countries they represented.
- The Parents who came to langenselbold
Sonja Morris, Switzerland.
Astrid Richardson, Germany
Heike Raza, Germany
Berengere Motyl, France
Maurice Elfeke, France
Jean Claude Luthi, Switzerland
Lois Pau, Sweden
Philippe Paquay, Belgium
Violaine Delahais, France
Eric Comet, Switzerland
Olivier Limet, Belgium
Penka Nikoleva, Bulgaria
Isabelle Henon, France
Jocelyne Meylan, Switzerland
Christophe Bonne, Germany
In addition to the parents we had several NGOís attend the meeting. The importance of working with the European organizations can not be stressed enough. We are going to need their impute and assistance to develop the ìcountry guidesî, we mentioned above, that will accompany all handbooks that go to the parents of internationally abducted children. The ìcountry guidesî will tell a parent what to expect from the country their child was abducted to. What are the laws governing family abducted children? How do you get a lawyer in the foreign country? What are the customs that should be observed? ect , ect, ect.- The following organizations give so generously of their time
DavidThelen, CEO, The Committee for Missing Children, USA
Christiane Lops, Director, The Committee for Missing Children/Europe, GERMANY
Karen Thelen, Secretary of the Board, The Committee for Missing Children, USA
Don Putterman, Board of Directors, Committee for Missing Children, USA
Andrea Ansquer, Collectif de SolidaritÈ aux MËres des Enfants EnlevÈs, FRANCE
- Caroline Raison and Claude-Henry Ney, Comite Francais Contre les Enlevements Parentaux DíEnfants, FRANCE
Gaele Leborgne, Fondation Pour LíEnfance, FRANCE
Anne Dussart, Child Focus, BELGIUM
ane Brummit, REUNITE, ENGLAND
Diane Burgy, FREDI, SWITZERLAND
Francoise Dubord and Maurice Elfeke, SOS Enlevements Parentaux, FRANCE
- Jean-Claude Luthi, Mouvement Suisse Contre líEnlËvement des Enfants, SWITZERLAND
- Do you know a good lawyer?
When you work in the field of internationally abducted children for any length of time there is one thing that you learn very quickly i.e. the parent of the abducted child is going to need a lawyer in the country that the child was abducted to. The lawyer that a parent retains has to be knowledgeable about the Hague Treaty and there are not many of these.- One of the goals that Christaine has set for the Committee for Missing Children is to develop a list of lawyers that can assist parents when they have their children go missing. The attorneys that have agreed to work with us are all dedicated to the parents of abducted children. Just recently I had a need for an attorney near Langenselbold. I called Harald Weisker and asked if he could take the case of a father whoís wife had just taken his little boy to Germany. Mr. Weisker agreed and the little boy and his dad were back in the United States in 66 days.
- The following four lawyers attended the parent Advocacy meeting.
- Linda Shay Gardner, Attorney at Law, Board Member of The Committee for Missing Children, USA
Frau Meyer-Gotz, Attorney at law, GERMANY
Kerstin Niethammer, Attorney at Law, GERMANY
Harald Weisker, Attorney at Law, GERMANY
A very special thanks
In addition to all of the participants listed above, I want to give a special thanks to both Theodore Coley, Chief, Special Consular Services and Felicitas Lauer who came from the United States Consulate in Frankfurt. They were the only members of any of the Central Authorities to except our invitation to the meeting.- Still a lot to be done
There is a lot of work still to be done, both in the United States and Europe in order to produce the handbooks that we feel will assist parents who have had their children go missing. I think we have made a great start. The Committee for Missing Children both in the US and Europe want to thank all the people who have given their time so that our goals can be accomplished.
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