Missing children campaign takes to streets

Missing children campaign takes to streets
Tues Oct 31, 2006 9:39 AM GMT


LONDON (Reuters) - Pictures of missing children will be displayed on hundreds of vans as part of a national campaign to try to reunite them with their families, organisers said on Tuesday.

More than 450 vans will be used to help find children and to raise awareness of the scale of the problem.

Campaigners say a child goes missing in Britain every five minutes, a total of 100,000 each year.

The first child to be featured will be 15-year-old Sasha McLeish, from Luton, who was reported missing on June 23 after she failed to arrive at school.



Police say she may have gone to Harlesden, northwest London, where she is thought to have a teenage boyfriend.

Detective Constable Zara Carr, who is investigating her disappearance, said her family is "worried sick". Her picture will be shown on vans owned by U.S. firm Emcor and on a police-backed Web site: http://missingkids.co.uk.

Charities have used milk cartons, TV screens in taxis and pictures on delivery lorries in previous campaigns.

The Children's Society has urged the government to set up a network of refuges to help the thousands of children who run away from home each year.

One in six say they were forced to sleep rough or with strangers and one in 12 say they were harmed, the charity reported on its Web site.


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