Are Media’s New Idea has teamed up with charity partner Leave A Light On to launch the inaugural New Idea Missing Kids Campaign: Please Come Home for Christmas.
This campaign will run across four issues during the festive season and will profile Australian families of missing children in the hope that they can be reunited in time for Christmas.
Each year, there are 38,000 people reported missing in Australia, with approximately 50 per cent of these being children aged between 13-17 years old. They may go missing for a variety of reasons including family conflict, urge for independency, mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, or they may be a victim of a crime. Whatever the reason, it is every Australian’s duty and responsibility to love, care for, help and protect our young and vulnerable.
New Idea partnered with Leave A Light On, a charity that was founded in 2015 by Suzie Ratcliffe in memory of her sister, Joanne Ratcliffe. Joanne was kidnapped from Adelaide Oval in 1973 and after her disappearance, Suzie’s parents would leave the front porch light on every night in the hope that she would come home. More than 40 years have passed and the search for Joanne continues.
New Idea’s deputy editor Rebecca Hyde said: “New Idea is proud to be raising awareness of these missing children, and urge our readers and the general public to provide valuable information to help reunite them with their families in time for Christmas and safeguard their future. We wanted to harness the power of New Idea to give families a platform to keeping telling their stories, and when we heard about the incredible work Leave A Light On was doing for the cause we knew they were the perfect partner.”
Ratcliffe added: “I know what life is like with a missing loved one – it’s a living nightmare, so to partner with New Idea and help reunite the families of lost children is phenomenal. It is heart-warming for the families affected knowing that themselves and their missing loved ones have not and will not be forgotten.”
Leave A Light On aims to raise awareness of missing person cold cases in Australia by working alongside other missing person’s organisations, such as the AFP Missing Persons Unit, The Daniel Morcombe Foundation, Safety 4 Kids, ChildSafe, Bravehearts and now, New Idea. They also raise awareness of the need for ongoing support for families and friends dealing with the ambiguous loss of a missing person.
New Idea will be profiling new stories and interviews with the family each issue over four weeks. The first issue, out today, profiles Suzie’s family and the ongoing search for Joanne, as well as Donny Goven who was 16-years-old when he went missing on a camping trip in Echuca, Victoria in 2012.
