Fund launched to combat child trafficking

BEIJING - Thanks to micro blogs, Zaizai, a volunteer who has helped rescue more than 100 missing children, will no longer be a lonely hero.

Associated with the China Social Assistance Foundation, the Combat Child Trafficking Fund was launched in Beijing on May 24. The fund aims to expand the network of anti-child-trafficking efforts and encourage families of missing children to continue searching.

Project Officer Li Qin said, the fund also serves as an aid to carry out national policies on child trafficking.

Led by the Ministry of Public Security, 26 ministerial sectors established the Office for Anti-kidnapping Inter-ministerial Joint Meeting of the State Council in 2007 specifically to work on this issue.

"We hope to be their most capable aid as a charity," Li said.

However, child trafficking has long been a complex issue in China. According to a Ministry of Civil Affairs estimate, there are approximately 1 to 1.5 million child beggars nationwide. Various groups have worked to eliminate child trafficking and save broken families. But they were unable to completely solve the problem.

The more he is involved as a volunteer, the more Zaizai realizes the obstacles. "My own power is too little," he said.

Deng Fei, one of the fund's initiators, compares previous searches for missing children to "finding a needle in a hay stack." But, he said, "micro blogs have increased the efficiency."

In 2010, Deng's micro-blog post entitled "Will the Internet make another miracle?" drew the public's attention to 3-year-old Peng Wenle. After 1,050 days of searching and posting on the micro blogs, an Internet user who saw the boy's picture online contacted the police.

Deng's question was answered in the affirmative; Peng was eventually found because of the micro-blog post.

Later, more people joined the initiative and started posting pictures of young beggars, because the children were often later identified as abducted children. Gradually, the movement transformed from a publically fueled campaign to an issue that forced official action.

"The police have played an important role, especially this one or two years because of the push from micro blogs," Deng said, adding that the Ministry of Public Security Anti-Abduction Office has created its own micro-blog for the public to report and supervise.

"They work well with the pubic," Deng said.

However, Deng noted that abduction is not a single problem and cannot be resolved by only one sector. Various issues, including family planning and lack of established adoption system, may spark the trading of children. Due to its complexity, he expects more sectors to get involved in the future.

After years of reporting on and being involved in children's issues, Deng has learned more about child trafficking.

"If a child is lost, the trauma to the family is immense," he said. "Now, I have become a father. I can understand them better."