Sunderland AFC has teamed up with over 200 football clubs from six continents to support a new initiative that hopes to help find vulnerable young people on International Missing Children’s Day.
Spearheaded by AS Roma, clubs include Liverpool, Chelsea, Juventus, FC Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and SAFC, with each club using their social media channels on 25 May to share videos featuring children who are currently missing all over the world.
The ‘Football Cares’ Initiative is being run by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) and supported by both the European Club Association (ECA) and FIFA.
Bob Cunningham, Chief Executive Officer at ICMEC, said: “Over one million children are reported missing around the world each year and while the majority may return home quickly and safely, many remain missing for longer periods of time. On International Missing Children’s Day 2020, we are honored to have the support of the global football community. With the huge following and global reach that these clubs boast, we hope that someone, somewhere could recognize one of the missing children in the videos and lead to a child being reunited with their loved ones.”
For more than 20 years, ICMEC has been leading efforts to make the world safer for children from abduction, sexual abuse and exploitation. Their work reaches across every continent, and ICMEC’s Global Missing Children’s Network brings together 30 countries to help recover missing and abducted children.
On 25 May each year, to mark International Missing Children’s Day, ICMEC coordinates activities and campaigns to build awareness around the issue of missing children, celebrate those who have been recovered and remember those who are still missing.
GET INVOLVED
Whether you are one of the biggest clubs in the world, a non-league team, a player, coach, journalist, fan or football organisation, you are invited to support the campaign.
To take part in the project on May 25, simply copy and paste the most relevant Twitter video URL from the list below into a tweet, add you caption - draft examples below - and make sure to include the relevant hashtags.
UK VIDEO
Link to include INSIDE your tweet:
https://twitter.com/missingpeople/status/1264519132063596544/video/1
Countries of children featured: England, Scotland
Video Language: English
Draft tweet text: On #InternationalMissingChildrensDay, [INSERT NAME] is proud to join @MissingPeople, @ICMEC_official and the global #FootballCares community to try to #FindEveryChild.
Link to include INSIDE your tweet:
https://twitter.com/ICMEC_official/status/1264590787045720069/video/1
Countries of children featured: England, USA, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Kenya, Germany, Australia
Video Language: English
Draft tweet text: On #InternationalMissingChildrensDay, [INSERT NAME] is proud to support #FootballCares and join the global football community and @ICMEC_official to make sure that #NoChildStandsAlone!
GLOBAL VIDEO 2
Link to include INSIDE your tweet:
https://twitter.com/ICMEC_official/status/1264595124765577216/video/1
Countries of children featured: USA, India, Brazil, Taiwan, Jamaica, England
Video Language: English
Draft tweet text: On #InternationalMissingChildrensDay, [INSERT NAME] is proud to support #FootballCares and join the global football community and @ICMEC_official to make sure that #NoChildStandsAlone!
EUROPE VIDEO
Link to include INSIDE your tweet:
https://twitter.com/ICMEC_official/status/1264603027115253765/video/1
Countries of children featured: Germany, England, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium
Video Language: English
Draft tweet text: Over 250,000 children in Europe go missing every year. On #InternationalMissingChildrensDay, [INSERT NAME] has teamed up with @ICMEC_official and the global #FootballCares community to help reunite vulnerable young people with their loved ones.