Romanian Center for Missing & Sexually Exploited Children

Press Release
Bucharest, 22 May 2008

A.I. Cuza Park, Sunday, 25 May 2008- FOCUS celebrates the International Day of Missing Children and also one year of activity. The event is organized with the support of UNICEF Romanian. Anyone can join us, between 11:00-17:00.

A labyrinth, symbolizing the feeling that children have when they get lost and cannot find the way back home; there will be rold real stories about these children; puppet theatre shows “Hansel and Gretel” and “The Charmed Panpipe”, both stories being connected with the idea of children who get lost; pantomime, graffiti contest and pavement drawings are just few of the activities prepared for the participants.

The aim of this event is to raise awareness and also to direct public attention towards the issue of missing, kidnapped and sexually exploited children.

We should care because the number of missing children is growing; there are more abductors and pedophiles than one would imagine; that once the Internet appeared, child pornography is widespread and affects the entire world.

Cristian Arsu is 16 years old and he is from Turnu Magurele, Teleorman district. On 2 April 2007 he disappeared. The child has never left home till that moment and never caused problems to his family, having a very good relationship with his parents. The boy attended courses, had a close relationship with his mother and he had a lot of friends. Despite the broad campaign of dissemination and despite the efforts of the Police and FOCUS to find the child, up to this moment nothing was discovered about Cristian.

On 21 February 2007, Dumitru Adrian Stoica, 5 years and 8 months, went fishing with his father in the forest close to this house (Sintesti Village, the bank of Sabar River). His father crossed the other bank to gather wood and when he came back he did not find the boy. Ever since then his parents are desperately looking for him.

“The disappearance and sexual exploitation of children is a cruel reality, which is wide spread. We are talking about phenomena which unfortunately spread quickly, and it is difficult to imagine a crueler fact than missing or sexually abused children” says Mihaela Geoana, President of FOCUS.

About the International Day of Missing Children
This day started to be celebrated in Canada, in 1986, at the initiative of “Missing Children” Organization and at international level, also in 1986, at the initiative of the International Red Cross, against the background of the alarming growth of missing children cases.

On 25 May, all over the world, round tables are organized on the issues of missing children and in order to disseminate solidarity messages for those children’s families in mass-media or on the streets of large cities, colorful balloons are released in the air as signs of hope. Since 1995, the symbol of this day is the flower "Forget-me-not".

About FOCUS
FOCUS- the Romanian Center for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children was established in January 2007 as a Romanian private legal entity, non-governmental, non-profit, apolitical, without a patrimonial purpose, autonomous and independent. The main purpose of the association is to initiate steps with a view to preventing and solving the cases of missing and sexually exploited children.
The Center has been operational since 25th of May 2007, after signing the Cooperation Protocol with IGPR (the General Inspectorate of Romanian Police) and has a complementary intervention, endorsing state authorities in their actions.
A year after starting its activity, FOCUS is at the time being member of the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children (MCE) and of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC).

Statistics

In 2007, at European level, the most important moment was the fact that the European Commission introduced the European phone line for missing children (116 000).

In its first year of activity, FOCUS case managers handled 552 cases. Out of this 528 were disappearance cases.

Here is the situation of the cases at the time being:

1. 60 - the child has not been found yet
2. 99 - monitoring cases (cases in which the child was found, but the cases require further surveillance in order to improve the growth and care conditions of the child);
3. 369-closed cases (the child was found and the case either does not require further surveillance or the period of surveillance ended).