The near two-week search for Swallowfield Primary and Junior High student Ananda Dean had captured the imagination of the nation with many praying for her safe return last year.

But the worst fears of most Jamaicans were confirmed when her body was found, sparking cries for more protection for the nation's children.

With Ananda's mother wailing in the background, minister of state with responsibility for local government, Robert Montague, yesterday announced the official start of a multi-agency system designed to alert the nation whenever a child is reported missing.

"As soon as a child goes missing, a call is made to the police which will alert the local authorities, the mobile-phone companies (Digicel and LIME), and the media which have volunteered to have a special sound and the picture of the child put out," Montague said.

"The mobile companies will send a text message to each subscriber describing the child, what the child was wearing when last seen and where the child was last seen," Montague added.

Parish disaster committees

While this is being done, the local authorities will activate their parish disaster committees and their network across the parishes. Community-based organisations and the parish-development committees will also use their networks to begin the search for the missing child.

After 12 hours, pictures of the missing child will be placed on electronic billboards, in shops, supermarkets, churches and the notice boards in public markets.

"The taxi companies have agreed to pass that information to their drivers and to post the pictures in their cabs," Montague also announced.

"The key is to get the information to the public as quickly as possible and the police will tell you that it is better to get one million false phone calls than not to receive the one that is critical," added Montague.

In endorsing the launch, Golding also called on every Jamaican to join the search for missing children.

"People cannot be indifferent because 'it is not my child'. People can't take the view that it is the police must do that ... . Everybody has to make this his responsibility, his charge, his business," Golding said.

"Our task must be to seek to protect the children from predators, from those who will seek to do them evil (and) we have an equal responsibility to protect the children from their own foolish ways," the prime minister added.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com

Missing persons 2006-08

2006

1,662 - reported missing

1,135 (68%) - returned home

35 (2%) - confirmed dead

527 (30%) - still missing

2007

1,298 - reported missing

957 (74%) - returned home

38 (3%) - confirmed dead

303 (23%) - still missing

2008

1,446 - reported missing

1,059 (73%) - returned home

55 (4%) - confirmed dead

332 (23%) - still missing