When a Child Goes Missing...The Victim, The Culprit and the Criminal

This story including the name mentioned therein are merely fictitious and any similarity to anyone or to any incident is purely a coincidence.

Asmah, a mother of 2 small kids, Amin aged 5 and Azrul aged 2 was at the kitchen preparing for family lunch. It is the family routine to have lunch together, as Asmah's husband, Azman will come back home for lunch. It was 11:30am and suddenly Asmah reaslised that the salt and sugar have finished. As she needs to get the lunch ready by the time Azman reaches home, she knew that she could not leave the kitchen, as Azrul was sleeping. The only alternative that she had was to ask his eldest son, Amin to go to the nearby sundry shop to buy sugar and salt. She was thinking that it was purely ok for Amin to go to the shop by himself as the shop was just about 100m away from her house and the shop owner knows Amin. Without further thinking, she asked Amin to walk to the shop and in return, she allowed Amin to buy ice cream for himself.

With the money in hand, Amin happily walked to the shop. As he reached the shop, he told the shop owner that he wanted to buy salt and sugar...not forgetting his ice cream. As the transaction completed, Amin walked back to his house while enjoying his ice cream.

The time was 11:50am and Asmah was anxiously waiting for Amin to be home with the sugar and salt. She was thinking of Azman reaches home while the lunch was not ready. While looking at the wall clock, she was thinking where was Amin? Where did he go? In her mind, Amin must have gone to the playground or the neighbour's house instead of coming back home. Thinking of that she was mad. In her mind, she was imagining scolding Amin for loitering around.

The time was 12.15pm and Azman reached home. It was a routine for Amin, the moment he heard the sound of Azman's motorcycle engine, to run towards the door and shouted "Ayah!" to welcome his daddy home. Azman has always waited and enjoyed that moment. Watching Amin run towards him means all the office problem goes away just like that. On that day, Azman was expecting that normal routine. However, as he walked into the house, there was no Amin running towards him. He thought that Amin might be sleeping. He went to the kitchen and saw Asmah was still preparing the lunch. He came from behind and hugged his wife while whispering to her "I love you". He then kissed her on her cheek and forehead. He went to the room but only saw Azrul sleeping. He did not see Amin. He went to the kitchen and asked Asmah about Amin. With the upset voice, Asmah told him about Amin has not come back from the nearby shop. It had been 45 minutes since Amin left home to go to the shop.

Sensing something was not right, Azman quickly turned on his motorbike engine and went to the shop. The shop owner told him that Amin left his shop about 30 min ago. That made Azman really worries about Amin. Where was Amin? Where did he go? What happened to him? Did he lost his way home? Was he kidnapped? All these questions started to play in his mind.

At home, Asmah was no longer upset with Amin. She too, sensing something is not right when Azman did not come back from the shop. She started to worry about Amin's safety. The sense of regret came to visit her. She told herself, I should not have asked Amin to go to the shop. While she was busy thinking about Amin, Azrul woke up. He went to Asmah and asked Asmah to hug him. Asmah did that as part of their routine. All of a sudden, Azrul asked his mother about his brother, Amin. Asmah did not know what and how to answer as she was thinking and praying for Amin's safety.

To cut the story short, Amin had never made it home since he left home to go to the shop that day. The distance between the house and the shop was merely 100m away but something would have happened within that 100m range. When Azman went to work that morning, Amin was still sleeping. He kissed Amin and Azrul before he left home. He could not imagine that it was the last time he got to kiss his son, Amin. Asmah had never thought that asking Amin to go to the shop by himself could result in Amin went missing. She could not imagine that was the last time she saw Amin. 

What had happened to Amin was he was abducted, sold to the syndicate of human trafficking, transported to other country to beg. That would not be all. Amin was then amputated on certain parts of his limbs.

 

Certainly and obviously, Amin was the victim in this case. He was twice the victim. Victim to his mother who did not care enough on his safety and victim to the child predator a.k.a. the criminal who was taking advantage on the helpless poor little boy.

Every time a child goes missing, people talk about the victim and the criminal, be it the abductor, the rapist, the molester, etc. Often, we tend to forget about the culprit, in the above case, it was Asmah, Amin's mother. It was because people will symphatise with Asmah (and her family), though she was the culprit. She was the only reason why Amin went missing. Should she be more careful in taking care of her kids' safety, Amin could have still be with the family. Unfortunately, as adult, lots of us think of what comfort us than the safety of the children. 

It is troublesome to bring the kids to the shop, hence leaving them in the car. 

It is troublesome to go to the shop, hence asking small kids to go, all by themselves.

It is troublesome to accompany kids to the playground, hence asking them to go on their own.

People know that all the above pose risk to the children and expose them to danger, but sad enough, people still do that hoping that nothing will happen.

Section 33 of the Child Act 2001 provides: -

Any person who, being a parent or a guardian or a person for the time being having the care of a child, leaves that child-

(a) without making reasonable provision for the supervision and care of the child;
(b) for a period which is unreasonable having regard to all the circumstances; or
(c) under conditions which are unreasonable having regard to all the circumstances,

commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both.
 

The above clearly imposes duty of care of a guardian towards a child. I am not sure if this Section 33 has ever been used to charge careless guardian in court. Based on my reading in the newspaper every time a child goes missing, the focus has always been to help find the child and who is the responsible party i.e. the criminal. Often we forget about the real culprit.

  

To solve an issue, we need to always look at the root cause of it. The root cause is always the careless and negligent guardian. Sad to say, we always forget to look at the root cause, hence allowing the next case to happen.

We at Mission for Missing Children is making effort to continuously creating and increase the awareness level among the society on the importance of the safety of our children. We do hope that the authority will play more pro-active role in this matter. 

Child predators strike at the time and in the manner we least expect. Hence, when we thought that it is ok, think twice as chances are, it may not be ok.

Folks, let us be safe than sorry.

Saying the Unnecessary...

It is mind boggling to read about the late William Yau's parents sharing story in the newspaper about them sending their 2 other kids to stay with their grandparents in Melaka for fear of being kidnapped.

This is what William's mother said as quoted in the newspaper "My husband worries that something will happen to them too as we do not know what really happened to William here.” 

The point is, why do they need to announce their plan and where do they "hide" their children from possible kidnapping? It is like telling your enemy about your strategy. It gives advantage to them and disadvantage to you.

William Yau's parents need help!

On the other hand, it is hoped that our newspaper or other form of media to also play their part and filter the news to be broadcasted. If the information obtained does more harm than good, then by all means, we plead not to share the news.

In order not to further spread the news, we decided not to provide the link to the news.   

True Story...An 11 Year Old Could Have Been Another Victim

What we want to share with readers is a true story that happened only yesterday, 15th April 2013. To protect the identity of those involved, we choose not to mention name and place in this posting. There are lessons to be learnt here.

Today, 16th April 2013, a headmistress of a School A received a phone call from a headmaster of School B that a standard 5 (age 11) pupil (the Boy) of School A slept at School B the night before.   

On 15th April 2013, the Boy was asked by his grandmother to go to the nearby shop. When the Boy returned from the shop, he found that the grandmother was not at home. As he had no key to the house, he left the stuff he bought outside the house and wentto his friend's house. Apparently a relative came to the house while the Boy went to the shop and took the grandmother with him (the relative). When the grandmother returned home at about 5.00pm, the Boy was not at home. Later the Boy went back and called for his grandmother but there was no response (apparently the grandmother was at home at that time). 

The Boy was then seen wandered around School B by the security guard and the security guard asked the Boy to get into the School B compound and gave him dinner. The Boy was then asked to sleep at the gurad post, School B.

Today, 16th April 2013, a teacher from School B gave the Boy breakfast before the headmaster contacted the headmistress of School A. A police report was then lodged by the headmaster. Teachers from School A went to fetch the Boy and sent him back to his grandmother's house.

Apparently, the Boy stays with the grandmother in a state southern part of peninsular, only two of them while his parents live in Kuala Lumpur. According to the grandmother, the Boy hardly stays at home and that irritates her. However, it was not confirmed if the grandmother's act to follow the relative and not to answer to the Boy's call thereafter were seen as a "punishment" to the Boy for hardly stays at home. According to the Boy, he normally stays at home and hardly goes out.

Thereafter, the Boy's aunty (who is said to be a teacher in Kuala Lumpur) contacted School A and claimed that the Boy's parents are irresponsible and sought help from the school. When teacher from School A asked for his parents' contact number, he has no idea how to contact them, as according to the grandmother, the father has changed his contact number. The Boy's parents return to visit him once a month.

What could have gone wrong in this case is that the Boy was exposed to danger as he might have been kidnapped by child predators while wandering without knowing where to go. Luckily we have a good samaritan (the security guard) who provided food and shelter for the Boy. 

The Boy is a victim as a result of the action of his parents who sent him to stay with the grandmother and that of his grandmother who left the house after asking the boy to go to the shop.

There are lessons we can learn from this episode. Even if the Boy likes to go out and hardly stays at home, that was not the way to teach him a lesson so that he will stay more at home. Do what they can to deal with the matter but the last thing they should do is to expose the Boy to such danger.  

Expedition to Mount Nanhu - Dedicated for MfMC

MfMC, championed by a group of mountain climbers had gone for an expedition to Mount Nanhu in Taiwan. The expedition from 3rd to 8th March 2013, which was dedicated for MfMC consist of 11 climbers, 2 of which were female.

Mount Nanhu, which is located within the Taroko National Park is one of the highest mountains in Taiwan, standing tall at 3,740m (12,270ft) above sea level. It is about 4.5 hours drive from Taipei. It is very famous among the local climbers but not so much among the foreigners. 

2 of our team members before boarding the airplane at KLIA with MfMC stickers

2 other team members before boarding at Changi Airport

This expedition, in line with our objective i.e. climb for a reason was used as a medium to promote MfMC to the world out there while we continue on our effort to increase the awareness level among the community on the importance of the safety of our children. This is simply because the issue of missing children is a global issue. Statistically, a total of 2,185 children gone missing daily in the US, in 2012 in average about 4 children went missing daily in Malaysia, more than 7000 children were missing in Taiwan in the first 6 months in 2012, while in 2011, an average of 182 children under the age of 12 were missing daily in Indonesia. Those are few statistics in few countries about missing children. That is scary!!! Hence our objective was to let people know first about MfMC with the hope that they will be interested to find out more about what MfMC is all about, hence the awareness level will rise.

While in Taiwan, we did little promotion among the locals. The hostel's operator, which we supposedly stayed in his hostel in Taiwan was excited with our mission. She asked for 3 MfMC's stickers to be pasted in her hostels in 3 different locations. Unfortunately, we did not manage to take picture of that as due to technical reason, we had to move to other hostel.

Our guide for the expedition, Wen Ting-Yi who had even "liked" our fb fan page while we were still in Malaysia was also excited about the mission that he wanted to understand more. Now, he posted a lot of our photos with MfMC stickers and flags in his facebook, which is accessible to 561 of his friends.

We bumped into local climbers on the mountain and took the opportunity to explain about MfMC. Apart from the explanation, they also took our photos with the MfMC flags. Again, we hope that would help us in promoting MfMC.

Explaining about MfMC to local climbers

In the meantime, during the expedition, we had unforgettable priceless, yet scary experience as we were hit by earthquakes 6 times as far as I can recall (but 12 times according to the report) with the strongest one was at the magnitude of 5.6 on the 5th day on the mountain. Praise be to Allah that we were not harmed. Everybody was safe.

For the rest of this posting, I will let the photos do the explanation.So, enjoy the photos.

Group photo before we start our day 1 trekking

The jungle

To Allah we submit ourselves

One of the water sources - near Yuling Cabin

At the peak of Nanhu East

On the way to Nanhu East

Subhanallah...Amazing

At the peak of Nanhu North

Waiting for sunset

Nanhu East

Marching...all in one line

From the Main Peak of Nanhu

Finally...at Main Peak Nanhu

One for the album...MfMC at the Main Peak Nanhu...Congratulations to all

Lost and Found

They were reported missing from their home and we reported it here.

Today, The Star reported that the girls have been found. It was a case of run away from home and not kidnapping as suspected by the father. Surprisingly or not surprisingly, the girls refused to go back to their house. Hence, according to the newspaper, they would be staying at the hospital or a shelter.

During their missing days, they were staying with a Nepali, said to be one of the girl's boyfriend. According to the father, while the girls used to have disciplinary issues in the past, they did not abuse them.

Over the years, it has become more challenging in bringing up children the way they are supposed to be. The surrounding factors, their friends, easy access to internet, etc influence their behaviour and attitutde. Hence, as parents, we need to be ahead of them and closely monitor their activities. More important that we must know who their circle of friends are. 

Missing Children

Name: Chen Poh Choo
Age: 15
Name: Poh Fong
Age: 13
Last Seen: 1st February 2013
Location: Pandamaran Klang
Status: Missing (suspected to kidnapped victims). Went missing on the way to school
Those with information, please contact 03-3167 9897 (Klang MCA Office) or 017-365 9897 (David Foo).

News taken from here

Wrist Road ID - The Way to Go

Parents invented various ways to keep the children safe especially at the crowded place. While some hold tight their children's hand, some were seen using a strap to connect between them and their children. There is another way that may be quite effective to keep our children safe. 

While the hand holding and using of the strap are seen more to ensure the children do not get separated from us, this other way that we are going to share with you serves as a tool to reconnect our children with us in case they are separated from us, mostly at the crowded places.

Wrist Road ID is what we would like to share with you. 

Wrist Road ID is a wrist band that contains our personal details such as emergency contact number, address, blood type, etc. In fact it is up to us to put what details we want on the Wrist Road ID (refer to the photo above).

Wrist Road ID was originally created for athletes such as runners, marathoners, cyclists, triathletes, etc who do a lot of outdoor training. It serves as a "spokeperson" in the event the owner/athlete is found unconcious, perhaps due to accident during individual training. To understand more how Road ID started, click here.

Enough of the athletes story, let's see how Wrist Road ID can work for us to keep our children safe. First of all, as we mentioned earlier, hand holding or using the strap may be useful but it does not 100% guarantee that our children won't get separated from us. That is when the Wrist Road ID comes to our help. With the Wrist Road ID on our children, they will have information about the parents such as the contact number, in case of accident, it will have our blood type. Hence, when the child goes missing, it will be easier to reconnect with us as the person who found our child will be able to immediately contact us.

Something to ponder.It is never expensive when it comes to our children's safety.