ChildRescue App | Innovation in Missing Children Investigation and Rescue
ChildRescue App | Innovation in Missing Children Investigation and Rescue
ChildRescue announces the launch of its innovative application in Belgium and Greece and calls for the public to download the app on their smartphones and to contribute to finding missing children in Europe. The ChildRescue App will be available both on Google Play Store for Android and on App Store for iOS. The launch is planned on 28 July 2020 in Greece and one month later, on 28 August in Belgium. Other European countries will follow.
Each year more than 250,000 children are reported missing in the European Union (EU). The first hours after the disappearance are vital in the search for missing children. ChildRescue is an innovative platform to effectively reduce the time it takes to find a missing child. It further helps resolve the disappearance of children in migration fleeing to Europe.
The project is funded by the European Commission and the Horizon2020 EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation (grant agreement No 780938) . During the last three years, developers, scientists, and social workers from across the EU have been co-working on the implementation of a concept that aimed to help the investigations of missing children and unaccompanied refugee minors. The initial concept was that citizens and users of smartphones may become an actual sensor and valuable contributor for the rescue of missing children.
The project aspires to effectively reduce the primary period between the moment a child is reported missing and the one when it is found, and to help predict and prevent the disappearance of Children in Migration, by increasing accuracy and timeliness of publicly and privately available information, by performing evidence-based predictions on the whereabouts of children in distress, and by providing location-based audience targeting of mobile alerts.
After numerous tests and real case trials over the past two years both in Belgium and Greece, this ground-breaking platform is ready to become public as an App for iOS and Android devices.
ChildRescue leverages the collective awareness of citizens around the phenomenon of missing children and tackles the issue of child disappearances by improving the effectiveness of missing children investigations. The application and its platform can be easily adopted by other voluntary organisations and expert groups that traditionally work in the field of missing children, offering them the benefits of social innovation. https://www.childrescue.eu/download_app/
About ChildRescue:
ChildRescue is an ambitious EU funded project that aims to assist the investigation of missing children and the discovery and identification of unaccompanied minors using state-of-the-art technologies and an innovative methodology.
The following partners set up the project: Missing Children Europe, Child Focus, The Smile of the Child, Hellenic Red Cross, National Technical University of Athens (DSSLab, coordinator), Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, SingularLogic, UBITECH, MADE Group, Suite5 Data intelligence solutions.
About Child Focus:
Child Focus is the Belgian Foundation of Missing and Sexually exloited Children and the official operator of the ChildRescue Platform in Blegium.
About The Smile of the Child:
The Smile of the Child is the largest civil society organization in Greece involved in childcare and child protection. 2020 is a milestone for the Organization that celebrates 25 years of contribution, offering services to all children in Greece nationwide, regardless of their nationality and religion, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. The Smile of the Child is the official Operator of the ChildRescue Platform in Greece.
About Hellenic Red Cross Hellenic Red Cross participation is in full compliance with the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement Fundamental Principles and restrictions in regards to publishing and sharing information and personal data. Access to HRC information is possible only to users certied by the Organization. The National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies all around the globe engage only trained and certied volunteers. The Hellenic Red Cross operates the ChildRescue Platform for their network of certified volunteers.
ChildRescue project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under grant agreement No 780938
