“Magnolia Children’s Search Service” has been helping Ukrainian families to find missing children for more than 20 years

Maryna Lypovetska, head of the “Magnolia Children’s Tracing Service” project and the T4P (Tribunal for Putin) initiative reported that this organization has been helping Ukrainian families to find their missing children for over 20 years.

The beginning of the history of the “Children’s Search Service” dates back to the time when modern means of communication were not yet developed in Ukraine, and all that caring journalists could do was to unite around the idea of ​​using media resources, in particular television, in order to show citizens photos of missing persons children This, according to Marina, significantly increased the chances of finding them.

In 2001, the organization was officially registered under the name “Magnolia”, and since then its activities have expanded significantly. Then the parents of the missing children wrote letters by hand, adding photos of their children to them, and these letters reached Kyiv through train conductors. There was a special person in Kyiv who visited the central station every day to pick up these letters and deliver them to the organization. It was a difficult but extremely important task.

Today the situation is completely different. To report the disappearance of a child, it is enough to call the hotline 116,000, which is available from any corner of Ukraine. The organization also developed chatbots and other electronic resources that made the process much more efficient. However, no one was prepared for what happened on February 24, 2022. Missile strikes near Magnolia’s office disrupted communications, and the hotline was down for a while. But the team understood that they cannot afford to stop, because over the years of the organization’s existence, people in Ukraine have become accustomed to turning to them for help in case of missing children.

Even before the full-scale invasion, the organization created alternative channels for appeals, such as Telegram bots, a Facebook page, and chatbots on their website. If earlier during the year they received about 300 appeals, then after connecting the electronic hotlines, the number of appeals reached hundreds per day.

The disappearances of children took place under different circumstances, but all of them were horrific. Many families disappeared with their children, hiding in basements, especially in those settlements that quickly fell under the occupation. Disappearances also occurred during the evacuation, which was poorly organized at the time. Some parents even gave their children to neighbors to save them. Unfortunately, there were cases when parents were killed during shelling, and children ended up in the hands of strangers.

Maryna Lypovetska emphasized that from the beginning of the full-scale invasion until today, the “Children’s Search Service” has received more than 3,150 appeals from parents and relatives who are looking for their children. Fortunately, most of the children were found and returned to their families. This is a great joy for the organization, but not all stories have a happy ending, as many parents did not survive the horrors of war.

The most difficult situation is the disappearance of children in the occupied territories. This was the new reality that the “Child Tracing Service” faced. Children did not disappear just like that – they were purposefully deported or abducted and taken outside of Ukraine. This problem became obvious after the liberation of Kyiv Oblast, when criminologists discovered that children who disappeared during the occupation were not among the dead. This was an alarm signal that the children could be taken away.

According to Maryna, the organization faced such a situation for the first time in April-May 2022. At first, it was difficult to imagine that children could be deported to Russia or the occupied territories, but it became a reality. Moreover, Russian propaganda tried to justify these actions, but in reality children were purposefully taken out, and it happened in groups.

Today, it is known about more than 600 Ukrainian children who were deported to the Russian Federation or moved to occupied territories, such as the “DPR”, “LPR” and Crimea. Fortunately, Ukraine managed to return 388 children. This process has been greatly aided by the OSINT community, which uses a wide range of tools such as facial recognition in photographs and geolocation analysis. This allows to establish the location of children and, in some cases, even to determine the educational institution where they are kept.

Ukraine became the first country to use OSINT technologies to search for missing children, and these technologies have proven highly effective. To date, the organization has received information about 233 children who are officially wanted by the National Police of Ukraine and who, as confirmed, are in Russia. Their movements are tracked, and it is known who is responsible for these actions.

Maryna Lypovetska also drew attention to violations of international law related to the deportation of children. Some children were given up for adoption to Russian families, changing their names and surnames to complicate the process of finding and returning them. In connection with these challenges, “Magnolia” received an important mission – advocacy for the protection of the rights of Ukrainian children at the international level.

The organization repeatedly spoke in the European Parliament on the issue of the deportation of Ukrainian children, and they had the honor of meeting the queens of Belgium and Sweden. This problem should not be ignored and should be talked about.

Separately, Maryna Lypovetska raised the issue of missing Ukrainian children on the territory of the European Union. In the first months of the full-scale invasion, the situation was extremely difficult. The State Border Service of Ukraine agreed on a simplified regime of movement with other countries, and children were released unaccompanied by their parents or even with strangers who tried to save them. In this connection, there were cases of disappearance of children in Europe.

Ukraine’s police were overworked, and hacking attacks on government databases made their work difficult. At that time, assistance was provided by the Missing Children Europe federation and European public organizations, and the police of other countries, for example, Slovakia, turned to Interpol to post announcements about missing Ukrainian children.

Although the situation has somewhat stabilized now, disappearances of children continue to occur in Europe. This especially applies to children who have been living in EU countries for some time and face misunderstanding or bullying in schools. The feeling of loneliness and lack of understanding that occurs in children leads to the fact that they may try to run away.

The “Child Tracing Service” does everything possible to find missing children abroad. They act as liaisons between parents and local organizations, helping to contact the police, collect the necessary documents and distribute announcements about missing children. A particular difficulty is the fact that there are no clear borders between countries in the European Union, so a child who has disappeared in one country may end up in another. In such cases, the organization involves all 32 member countries of the Missing Children Europe federation in the search.

Today, more than 20 TV channels in Ukraine broadcast information about missing children, but the most powerful tool remains the Internet, because it has no borders. The organization actively cooperates with bloggers and influencers who spread announcements about missing children, which allows to draw attention to this problem in any corner of the world.

Hotline 116,000 works throughout Ukraine, and this number is the only European number for hotlines for missing children. This means that in any European country, a person calling 116,000 will receive support and help from a local public organization.

This story once again emphasizes the importance of international cooperation and the use of modern technology in the search for children, as well as the importance of the efforts of everyone who helps to bring them home.