City's Missing Children Network provides free ID booklets

By P.A. Sévigny, October 17th, 2012

While it may be every parent's nightmare, it's always nice to see that somebody is willing to do what it takes to help protect children from anyone and everyone who might want to harm them.
“We've been doing this for the past 27 years,” said Pina Arcamone who is the managing director of Québec's Missing Children's Network. “Up to now, we've already found 856 children who could have been lost forever.”
 As of the last three years, Arcamone's mission has become a lot easier because of the advent of public media services combined with the ubiquitous and endless use of the media's so-called 'smart' phones. Following last Sunday's special children's identification day which was held in over 175 participating pharmacies throughout the province, Québec's Missing Children's Network (MCN) was handing out special identification booklets in which volunteers working for the MCN would take down a child's personal information along with an up-to-date picture and a thumbprint in order to provide both the police and the MCN with a readily accessible file in case of an emergency.
“While most cases are the result of a child who is running away because of some sort of a family crisis, we sometimes have to deal with parental kidnapping which is always serious, especially if either one of the parents comes from another country,” said Arcamone. Thanks to the social media, Arcamone's identification program is beginning to bear results because the police can issue what they call 'amber alerts' to all of the city's private and public networks within a moment's notice if they think it's necessary.
As the owner of a private cable channel with a mandate to provide the local police with an immediate access to both private and public media outlets, Vincent Géracitano recently told The Suburban that it was a good program because “…once the police decide a child is in trouble, every minute counts.”
 Aside from her extensive experience in the field, Arcamone said the courts are beginning to catch up with the realities that occur during a family's dissolution as shared custody of the children tends to calm down what could become a dangerous situation for the child.
 “Education is starting to become a big part of our mandate,” she said, “…but our focus is always on the children and their safety.”n