May 20, 2009 0
Ananda Alert System Launched
The Ananda Alert System to track missing children, was officially launched by Prime Minister Bruce Golding at Jamaica House yesterday.
The missing child alert system was named after Ananda Dean, a primary school girl who went missing in September 2008, and whose headless, decomposing remains were found at Chancery Hall in Red Hills, St. Andrew two weeks later.
The Ananda Alert System will kick in when the police get information that a child is missing. They will then alert the media houses who will publish the child’s photograph, details of his/her attire and where he/she was last seen. Telecommunication companies, Digicel, LIME and Claro will also send text messages and images of the missing child to every cellular phone subscriber on their respective networks. Advertising companies have also agreed to post the child’s image and information on electronic billboards across the island.
Registered taxi companies will also carry pictures of the missing child in their vehicles, and the postal system, disaster coordinators and parish development committees will also be part of the alert network, posting images of the missing child at prominent places in town squares and at post offices.