Chronicle EditorHerald Reporter
Zimbabwe Red Cross Society has launched a unique humanitarian innovation at the ongoing Harare Agricultural Show by introducing child event tracing services meant to cater and look after children during the course of the show.
The child tracking system is targeting all children under the age of 13 at every entry point where upon arrival every child would be tagged and parents or guardians responsible for those children would avail their addresses and phone numbers for easy tracing.
The children are also advised to engage Red Cross volunteers in the event that they lose contact with their parents or guardians in the exhibition grounds.
Red Cross Society Mashonaland Central provincial programmes officer Mr Earnest Maruza said the organisation embraced the call by the corporate world and other stakeholders to tighten child security during the course of the show to avoid cases of missing children.
“Red Cross is a humanitarian organisation that works hand in glove with Government to provide appropriate and acceptable humanitarian services. In this case, two years ago, the nation was shadowed by the missing and subsequent death of Given Matapure, an incident that left the whole nation shell-shocked. To curb incidents of that nature, we developed a social responsibility interest to extend our assistance to protect children from being victims of abduction,” said Mr Maruza.
The new event tracing system, which runs under the organisation’s nation-wide “Restoration of Family Links programme” proved popular among show goers.
Online Reporter