Dame Esther Rantzen, the broadcaster and lifelong campaigner for children’s rights, has lent her support to The Independent’s SafeCall campaign, which aims to raise vital funds to help missing children find safety and support.
The creator of Childline – the counselling service that has helped millions of children for nearly three decades – Dame Esther has devoted much of her life to protecting young people and used her television career to champion their voices.
She is now backing this publication’s appeal to fund a new service that will reach the 70,000 children reported missing in the UK each year.
Dame Esther said: “So many young people who suffer exploitation don’t feel they can ask for help and be listened to, at a time when they are scared, alone and vulnerable.
“This new service means at last there is a way to enable them to seek help with confidence and hope. Going missing is a crisis – a crucial moment to intervene and help, on young people’s terms.”
Donate here or text SAFE to 70577 to give £10 to Missing People – enough for one child to get help.
Dame Esther launched Childline after her long-running BBC show That’s Life!, which she produced and presented from 1973 to 1994, aired a special episode called “Childwatch”. It invited viewers to take part in a survey if they had experienced abuse as a child.
After the programme, the producers opened a 48-hour helpline so children could call in and ask for help. More than 50,000 calls came through on the first night – most from children being sexually abused.
In her book Running Out of Tears, Dame Esther wrote: “I will never forget walking into my office the morning after the programme to meet the social workers who had been running the helpline. I knew in that moment that working to help protect abused children was far more important to me than any of my previous work.
“As I heard about these hidden children, all guarding a terrible secret, I passionately wanted to be able to help them. It was the most important cause I had ever worked for.”
With nearly 600 children going missing every day in the UK, The Independent is aiming to raise £165,000 to help launch SafeCall – a free new service that will provide children in crisis with confidential support, guidance and a route to safety.
Dame Esther, who has also been a patron of several charities advocating for children, was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours list. She received the honour for her services to children and older people through her charities Childline and The Silver Line, which offers support for older people.
“It has been an honour to be by the side of Missing People and the young people they have helped during the development of this new service, over many years. I’m thrilled The Independent is supporting such an important cause,” she said.
Please donate now to the SafeCall campaign, launched by The Independent and charity Missing People, to help raise £165,000 to create a free service to help children who have gone missing find safety, security and support.
For advice, support and options, if you or someone you love goes missing, text or call the charity Missing People on 116 000. It’s free, confidential and non-judgemental. Or visit www.missingpeople.org.uk/get-help
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