International Missing Children’s Day 2022 – Missing but not forgotten

This year the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (NMPCC) marked IMCD by revisiting the dedicated IMCD tree located at the National Arboretum in Canberra, where in 2021 AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw APM, officiated a tree dedication.  

The tree symbolises the ongoing commitment of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to provide assistance to our State and Territory policing partners in finding missing children and, more broadly, all missing persons, as well as  providing a permanent fixture of remembrance for families and friends of missing children to visit.  

Family members of long-term missing child, 16-year-old Gordana Kotevski, who went missing in 1994 joined the NMPCC to create a video to educate the community on the impacts of living with a missing child and the ambiguous loss families endure.   
  
Gordana’s mother Peggy, sister Carolina, and Aunty Julie featured in the video, sharing their heartache and experience of having a child go missing. They also explain what the dedicated tree means to them, and the importance of a permanent commemoration site for their missing loved one.  

The NMPCC also worked with the Global Missing Children’s Network (GMCN), an organisation that has been helping recover missing and abducted children for over a decade, to reaffirm the international commitment to continue efforts to find those children who are still missing through an online pledge. 

If you believe you have information relating to a missing child or missing person that may assist police with their investigations, please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. 

To view the IMCD commemorative videos and learn more about the campaign please visit the NMPCC Facebook page or AFP NMPCC Instagram page  

Missing person’s profiles can be viewed on the public register www.missingpersons.gov.au/search.