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40 thousand Madeleines

Find out how people are trying to find the astonishing number of lost ones in Brasil

It’s well known that the Madeleine McCann case moved people all across the globe. Soccer stars, literary celebraties and even the Pope got involved in the search for the missing four year old girl who disappeared from a Portuguese resort on May 3rd 2007.

But above all, the Madeleine McCann case mobilised the press, becoming something of a soap-opera in the British tabloids and throughout the world. However not a line was written, for example, about the Angolan teenager who disappeared in North London a month ago (and is still missing at the close of this edition).

The press and the Pope also don’t pay much attention to the numerous cases of missing children in Brasil - a shockingly frequent occurrence in the country. According to the Brasilian government, every year around 40,000 children disappear without a trace. Whether it is due to family problems, kidnapping or abuse, Brasilian children and teenagers run away or are taken away from their homes without any subsequent media uproar or any mass support offered to their families.

In a country with over 180 million inhabitants, fi nding a child, who often doesn’t know the name or telephone number of his or her own parents is an almost impossible task. In an attempt to deal with the issue, The Special Secretariat of Human Rights in Brasil set up an International Network for the Identifi cation and Location of Missing Children (Redesap). Families can post photos and information about missing minors on the organisation’s website.

Sometimes, families don’t get in touch with the authorities once children have been found, which makes it diffi cult to calculate exactly how many children and teenagers are actually missing in Brasil. Estimates vary according to different sources. The Brasilian Association for Seeking out and Defending Missing Children, better known as the Mães da Sé, have 5 thousand children on their register.

The association was set up in 1996 by two mothers, Ivanise Esperidião da Silva and Vera Lúcia Gonçalves, who met each other participating in a group for mothers of missing children that appeared on the telenovela (soap) Explode Coração, which was broadcast by TV Globo, the most popular channel in Brasil.

At the time, the protagonist of the telenovela was a woman whose son had gone missing. In order to fi nd him, she decides to join the Mães da Cinelândia movement, a group of mothers who meet up in Cinelandia, Rio de Janeiro, with photos and posters of missing children, in the hope that someone might be able to give some information regarding their whereabouts. By the end of the telenovela, 113 children, teenagers and adults had been found.

Ivanise and Vera decided to set up a similar organisation in São Paulo and founded Mães da Sé. Every second Sunday of the month, they’d meet up in the city centre, just like the Mães da Cinelândia.