Volunteers are search engines. Rescue friend

“A 12-year-old boy disappeared ...”, “A girl left the house and did not return, her eyes were blue, her hair was fair…”, “A man was missing…”. Pages of printed publications and Internet resources are full of such ads about missing people. Who is looking for the Police, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and volunteers, such as representatives of the organization "Lisa Alert". Why is the search party called that and what does it do? This will be discussed below.

Who is looking for the missing people?

The statistics are harsh and unforgiving, and it testifies that in Russia every half an hour up to two hundred thousand applications from relatives who are looking for their missing loved ones are received by the police departments every year. The overwhelming majority of these appeals are processed promptly, and people are found and returned to their families. Police officers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and, more recently, volunteers of the Liza Alert search unit are also involved in the search. The life of the missing people depends on the coordination of the work of each member of the team and the efficiency of actions. Caring people make up the backbone of the Lisa Alert search unit. Why is it called that?

Lisa is a girl who did not have time to help

The squad's history began in 2010. This summer, the boy Sasha and his mother disappeared. Volunteers went out in search, and the child was found safe and sound. And in September, the girl Liza Fomkina from Orekhovo-Zuevo disappeared, who went into the forest with her aunt and got lost. In the case of Lisa, the search was not started immediately, precious time was lost. Volunteers joined the search only on the fifth day after the disappearance of the child. She was looked for by 300 people who sincerely worried about the fate of a little unknown girl. She was found 10 days after the loss. Unfortunately, help came too late. A 5-year-old girl lasted nine days in the forest without food or water, but she never got to her rescuers.

The volunteers who participated in the search on September 24, 2010 were shocked to the core by what happened. On the same day, they organized a volunteer search party "Lisa Alert". Why is it called so, every participant in this movement knows.

Alert means search

The name of the little heroic girl Lisa has become a symbol of human participation and complicity. The word "alert" in translation from English means "search".

In the United States, since the mid-90s, the Amber Alert system has been operating, thanks to which data about each missing child gets on the scoreboard in public places, on the radio, in newspapers, and appears on the Internet. Unfortunately, there is no such system in our country yet. Employees of the Liza Alert search unit are trying on their own to introduce, if not an analogue of such a system in Russia, then at least to make information about someone else's misfortune available. Indeed, in the case when people disappear, especially children, every minute counts.

Who are the members of the search party?

Why the detachment is called "Lisa Alert", you now know. Let's talk about its composition.

The detachment from Moscow, the first in this truly all-Russian movement, is the largest and most active. To date, divisions with a different number of participants have been formed in forty regions of the country.

There is no single control center, each department operates independently. But between them there is a constant connection, which is carried out as a result of training new employees, exchange of experience and information. The organization does not have current accounts; all activities are carried out on a voluntary basis. When carrying out search work, volunteers are provided with the necessary equipment, communication equipment and transport. During long searches, participants in the rescue operation are provided with food.

Search engines do not charge money for their services. Those who want to help can enroll in a detachment, provide assistance with technical means or other feasible support. And each participant knows why the group is called "Lisa Alert", and is afraid not to be in time to those who are in trouble.

How does the search work?

The squad's representatives strive to inform people about what to do if a person is missing. The fate of the lost people depends on the clear and timely actions of the relatives who apply. According to statistics, when contacting on the first day, 98% are lost, on the second day - 85%, when contacting on the third day, the percentage of a happy outcome is reduced to 60%. And later, the chances of finding a missing person alive, especially a child, are practically reduced to zero.

In the case of Liza Fomkina, active searches began only on the fifth day, which led to a tragedy that shocked the volunteers. That is why the search party is called "Lisa Alert" - it is not only a tribute to the memory, but also an eternal reminder that someone is waiting for help at the moment.

Interaction with government agencies

Over the years of the detachment's existence, representatives of the search engines have established contact with the police and the Ministry of Emergencies. After all, the main task of finding the missing people falls on the authorities. But what can one local inspector do if a person is lost in the forest? considering the scale of the search.

Search party "Lisa Alert" comes to the rescue. Volunteers create mobile search groups, draw up an event plan, collect information about the missing person, where and when he was last seen. Every little thing can be the key to a happy outcome.

Where does the search begin?

There is a hot line in the search unit. A single number valid throughout the country. For those who have lost their loved ones, but hopes to find them, sometimes he becomes the only thread to salvation. The operator takes the call, but the volunteers do not act without a police report of the loss. It is not uncommon for hooligans to call and tell the tragic story of a missing person. If there is a statement to the police, representatives of the search squad enter the case, deploying an organized and well-coordinated activity, not forgetting for a minute why the so-called "Lisa Alert" is.

Search operation

Each member of the squad has its own place and role in the operation. In the main headquarters, they operate remotely, collecting information bit by bit, distributing it in the media, on the Internet, posting ads, making a map of the search area.

An operational headquarters is deployed directly on the spot. In it, the coordinator determines the plan for search and rescue operations, a detailed map of the area is drawn up with the definition of search squares for each member of the group. Here, the radio operator provides communication with each participant, so that in case of detection, the rest of the search participants can come to the rescue immediately. During a long search, the support team arranges supplies of food, water and other necessary materials so that the search continues without interruption.

Teams of volunteers trained to navigate rough terrain work directly in the search area. Newbies are always put next to experienced search engines. If necessary, helicopters of the aviation group will rise into the sky, which will provide aerial reconnaissance. If the search area is far away, then the groups can be delivered by all-terrain vehicles. The search engines include cynologists with dogs who help find lost people. If a tragedy occurred near a reservoir, divers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations examine the water area. All these forces are involved, depending on the complexity of the search, in order to have time to come to the rescue and not repeat the situation that happened many years ago, and to remind ourselves why it is called “Lisa Alert”.

Who can become a squad member?

The ranks of the Lisa Alert search unit are open to everyone. Everyone can provide all possible help. Students, retirees, accountants, housewives, athletes or freelancers can all become members of the volunteer squad. Anyone who has reached the age of majority can become a volunteer. Those still in school can help disseminate and search for information on the Internet, but they do not participate in active searches.

We have already explained why the search party "Lisa Alert" is so called. Volunteers are trained in first aid techniques, taught to work with navigators, a compass, a radio station, and the basics of cartography. So that each volunteer can provide the necessary assistance to the victim and notify other team members about the find.

Search engines keep pace with the times

The search squad "Liza Alert" has its own hotline number, which is the same throughout Russia. These cherished numbers must be memorized in every telephone. Indeed, in the case when a person is lost, not a minute can be lost. The operator will instruct the applicant about the algorithm of actions.

Also on the official website of "Lisa Alert" you can find a search form, by filling out which, everyone who applies can be sure that this information will be seen in different parts of the country.

Now Liza Alert has a mobile application as well. Anyone can download it to a smartphone. It's more of an app for notifying volunteers that a person has gone missing in a particular region. It helps to quickly assemble rapid response teams.

Forewarned is forearmed

Members of the group are actively involved in preventive measures aimed at reducing the number of disappearances. Simple rules can sometimes help keep someone else alive. Also, the staff of the "Liza Alert" squadron (why they called it that way, many think) have developed clear algorithms for how to act during search operations in a forest, on a pond, in a city and in other conditions.

Despite all efforts, in Russia from 15 to 30 thousand children disappear annually. Every tenth of them is forever. That is why "Lisa Alert" is called that, and the victory of these people is someone's saved life!

GPS trackers, scrapbook and love

How it works: finding missing people

5 Mar 2020

4950

"Attention! The person is missing! We ask for help in disseminating information ”- sometimes we help repost search operations, but in Russia there are hundreds of people for whom this is a job. Using the example of the PSO "Liza Alert", we will tell you how the search for missing people is arranged. For help in preparing this material, we thank Stanislav Kovalev - the leader of the Sverdlovsk detachment.

How did it all begin?

In addition to government agencies such as the police and the Ministry of Emergencies, volunteers are searching for the lost: for example, with the initiative of caring people in 2010, the history of the Lisa Alert volunteer movement began. In Orekhovo-Zuevo, five-year-old Liza Fomkina and her aunt disappeared. The girl was found dead on the tenth day - she died the day before from hypothermia. There was a chance to save the child if the search operations had begun the day before. With this tragic story, active volunteer work began to search for missing people in Russia, and the volunteer movement was named Liza Fomkina.

In Yekaterinburg, the search and rescue squad "Liza Alert" is headed by Muscovite Stanislav Kovalev. During the day, he is the deputy director of one of the city's construction companies, and on weekends, in the evenings and at night, he is a volunteer.

“The Sverdlovsk detachment has existed for four years,” says Stanislav. - The priority directions for us have been and remain the search for children and the elderly. We are looking for adults as much as possible. "

"We are looking for, but not all"

The "hottest" time for "Lisa Alert" is summer: the time when children have holidays and are left to their own devices, and adults go to the forest for mushrooms or berries and get lost. In spring and autumn, during periods of exacerbations of mental illness, older people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia most often disappear: older people, going out to sit on a bench at the entrance, simply forget where they are and go. In winter, mostly adults disappear, who most often disappear of their own accord.

“As soon as we find out that a person left voluntarily, to live for some time in a monastery, for example, we stop any activities, because an adult sane person made a conscious choice to leave. We are always looking for children, ”says Stanislav.

In June and July of this year, volunteers of the Sverdlovsk region received 91 applications for search, incl. and 17 children. Found alive - 64 people, including 14 minors, dead - 11 adults and 2 children, the remaining 14 and 15 more people, previously declared missing, are still not found.

What the loved ones of lost people are doing wrong

One of the main mistakes that can cause irreparable grief is the attempts of relatives to search for the missing on their own, without involving the police and volunteers. Stanislav notes that in any events there are roads not only every day, but every hour and minute: “If the request for a search was received on the first day, the probability of finding a person is 99%: at this time it is still possible to interrogate bystanders, look at the CCTV cameras, which are installed in public places and determine the path of the lost person. With each subsequent day - the percentage of successful completion decreases. If more than two weeks have passed since the loss, there is no point in going out to the area: it is more difficult to find witnesses, and some recordings from cameras are deleted quickly, the disappeared himself could have gone very far. "

Many parents, fearing that their family might be registered with the PDN (juvenile affairs unit), do not file a complaint about their lost child with law enforcement agencies. In cases of adults disappearing, relatives hesitate to notify the police because of a long-standing false belief: the authorities need to be notified after three days have passed since the loss of communication, and in the police you can often stumble upon the answer: "He'll walk around and come himself."

“This phrase about three days sounded for the first time in the film“ The Investigation Are Conducted by Experts ”and since then has stuck in people's heads. In fact, according to the law, the police must respond to a statement immediately upon a call or upon written request. Parents have the right to sound the alarm even if their child is late for about five minutes. "

It also happens that volunteers are the first to know about the missing. They promptly gather groups for searches, print guidelines and go to the site, at the same time persuading relatives to apply to law enforcement agencies. When there is a well-coordinated team of professionals from different organizations - the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the BRNS (Accident Registration Bureau), there are great chances to find a lost person.

“We have signed agreements on cooperation with all government agencies. We inform them when we receive any information about the lost, and they often turn to us for help, ”says Stanislav.

How does the search work?

The work of "Lisa Alert" is organized, each of the volunteers has his own area of ​​responsibility, but in each case the tactics change: there is no universal formula. Typically, the search begins with calls received on a single "hot" line of the detachment or on the website of the initiative, the operator directs it to the appropriate region. Local informers check the information - they call relatives, the police, hospitals, BRNS, then draw up an orientation and, if necessary, distribute it through the media and social networks, pass it on to truckers and colleagues in other regions and countries. Cartographers plot the territory of the prospective quest; signalmen organize the uninterrupted operation of radios; coordinators interact with participants and monitor. Volunteers are posting landmarks, interrogating witnesses, looking for people in any area except water. At a time, 40-50 people respond to the operational combing of the terrain. There are also prevention instructors who give lectures for children and parents in schools in the Sverdlovsk region and distribute "Personal cards of the child". It so happens that parents, being in shock, cannot remember any special signs of a son or daughter - a mole, a scar, an eye color, then a card comes to the rescue, where all the child's data is entered in advance, - in case of loss, it will help to quickly draw up orientation.

“The squad has several search technologies. If, for example, a grandmother with Alzheimer's got lost, we find out her previous place of residence when interviewing relatives. So, one old woman disappeared in Yekaterinburg, and they found her at the entrance of a plant in Nizhny Tagil, where she worked all her life; I forgot what had happened to her for the last 30 years, but she remembers her youth and came to the plant with full confidence that she still works there. In cases of missing teenagers, it is important to find out the "slider" (that is, a child who has left home or a government institution more than once) or not. A teenager who left after some kind of conflict ran away on purpose. In no case should you print orientations on such a missing person and distribute them around the city or in social networks, otherwise the teenager may leave for another region and the search will become more difficult. Here you can only help by interviewing friends and witnesses. "

Why do children run away?

Contrary to the stereotype, children are fleeing not only from dysfunctional families and orphanages - often teenagers also leave wealthy parents. There are many reasons, in particular - a lack of understanding on the part of adults, conflicts with relatives and friends - parents often try to hide such details from the police and volunteers: it may seem to them that this is an idle interest that is irrelevant to the case. In fact, it is often these details that help organize the search for the missing child correctly.

Banal ignorance about the life, plans and dreams of a son or daughter is also one of the factors of loss. One escaped 10-year-old boy wanted to become a traveler, so he left home. Even computer games can cause an escape: it happens that children are found in Internet clubs, where, unlike at home, they are not prohibited from playing shooters. But when misfortune strikes, parents actively help in search activities.

Loved ones are looking for loved ones

“Parents and relatives are often with us at the place of the search and help, attracting more volunteers from among our friends, they themselves are actively involved. But there are also tantrums among relatives, our inforges are trained in some methods of providing psychological assistance, ”says Stanislav.

One of the first relatives to learn and information about the results of actions. The worst thing is to hear “Found. Killed ": such words have to be reported to the police officers. Hope and belief in a favorable outcome are inspired by “Not Found” and “Found. Alive. " Undoubtedly, participation in search activities requires strong nerves - you never know what the next search will be.

“The experienced volunteers, like the police officers, develop a certain hardening and information about the dead is not taken as close to the heart as the newcomers,” explains the head of the Sverdlovsk detachment.

According to Stanislav, he often remembers those searches in which he himself found someone:

“I was on my way to look for a nine-year-old girl who had been missing for three days already, and stopped at one of the shops to buy water. At the checkout in the supermarket I look: this girl is standing, the photograph I just saw. It turns out that with the same 10-year-old guys all three days she collected scrap metal and handed it over. I also remember the story of how one man climbed a tree out of fear, and after being rescued he could not speak for some time. "

"We don't need money"

Liza Alert is an independent free volunteer initiative and local and federal media, mobile operators and even airlines are easily willing to cooperate with it. Often as gratitude, relatives offer money to the detachment.

“Messages about the collection of money for our needs are fraudulent. If someone wants to help us, then the list of necessary materials for carrying out search work is posted on our official resources. We will be happy to accept everything except money: compasses, navigators, flashlights, paper and printer cartridges, batteries, rechargeable batteries. Each volunteer buys or orders equipment or paraphernalia with the squad's logo. "

Stanislav dreams that someday his squad will simply have no work left to search for the missing, so that no one will ever get lost again.

“There can be only one advice for parents: love your child, establish friendly relations with him, and you need an eye and an eye for elderly relatives. Be sure to put a scrapbook in all the pockets of their clothes with your contacts. Also today you can buy all kinds of GPS trackers and "beacons", with their help to track the movement of a relative - when it comes to safety, all means are good. And the foresters would like to advise: do not wear camouflage in the forest ”.

P.S. While you were reading this material, three children disappeared somewhere in Russia, one of them may never be found.

One person disappears in Russia every half hour. During the year, the police departments receive about 200 thousand applications with a request to start searching for the missing. Half of the requests are later withdrawn. This is largely due to the successful conduct of rescue operations. Their participants are police officers, less often the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and most often volunteers. The Lisa Alert squad is an association of people who are ready to come to the rescue and start looking. Look for those who once did not return to their loved ones.

“A boy about five years old disappeared ...”, “a little girl in a red jacket left the playground…”, “A 14-year-old teenager did not return home after school. Special signs ... "- we read such messages from day to day. Pasted on porches, lampposts, passport desks, unfortunately, at some point they even cease to attract attention. Here is a photo and an accompanying text: they have been looking for this person for more than two weeks, everyone who is ready to help with information or action is asked to respond. A few minutes pass, and the first time he sees the face is forgotten. And the pain of those who are now sitting at home and staring with horror at a silent phone can be tried on for themselves for just a split second.

The Lisa Alert Volunteer Squad (similar to AMBER ALERT, the American Missing Children Alert System) was founded in 2010. In the summer of 2010, activists united on the Internet and went to one of the forests near Moscow in search of little Lisa Fomkina, who got lost while walking with her aunt. Police officers postponed the search for a long time, and when the volunteers started them, they could not join the activists because they were busy on the City Day. As a result, Lisa was found by members of Lisa Alert's search party.

Emotionally shocked, the guys agreed that they would continue to respond to such cries for help. Now the detachment has a kind of branches, the organization exists exclusively on a voluntary basis. Associations under the same name function in Bryansk, Tver, Ivanovo and many other regions. To the question of how many participants Lisa Alert has, no one can answer for sure. Thousands of registered, hundreds of activists, and every time new people come to search, they replace each other on duty, and sometimes it seems that the support is colossal.

Basically, says the coordinator of the volunteer search squad Irina Vorobyova, among the volunteers there is an unspoken distribution: someone leaves only in search of children, someone, on the contrary, - adults, others are looking for disabled people. And you never know how many people will be helping today. But in critical situations, of course, everyone is mobilized. During one of the rescue operations on the second day of the search, the missing person contacted relatives by mobile phone. “My grandfather said that he was in the forest, he saw a helicopter, but he could no longer walk. There were only eight of us then, by evening we gathered seventy. Explaining to people that this is the last chance for an elderly person. "

Of course, the creation of such a detachment highlights the problem of search by police officers. It is no secret that reports of loss are accepted 72 hours after the person did not return home. It is no secret that although claims of loss must be accepted at the time of contact, they are often postponed for 72 hours. And even if the application has already been accepted, the search does not begin before the designated hour X. This convention is connected with the fact that from a huge number of false calls to isolate really serious ones. As for adults, it is clear that they can leave, leave and forget to warn their relatives, but it is impossible to wait with folded arms for three days for a child who has not returned from school. You can gather all your relatives and friends, comb the back streets and basements, but as a rule, ten, even twenty pairs of eyes are not enough.

The federal law on "Operational-Investigative Activities" states that in special cases ("which ... may lead to the commission of a serious crime, as well as in the presence of data on events and actions that pose a threat to the state, military, economic or environmental security of the Russian Federation" ) it is possible to carry out search operations within 24 hours after the loss. At the same time, the next day, a court decision on this should already be received. It is not hard to guess that such exceptions are too rare.

Lisa Alert's volunteers say they don't often have to work side by side with police officers. And even the messages themselves about the loss they receive from the Ministry of Emergency Situations (a similar agreement was concluded last year), which in this case serve exclusively as a mouthpiece. Accordingly, departmental dog handlers rarely accompany volunteer detachments. And since there are not enough police officers even with official permission to search, the "Alertovites" came up with the idea of ​​using police cars. If the missing person is in the forest, the sound of sirens from service vehicles has already helped the victim to orient himself on the terrain several times.

According to the internal statistics of Lisa Alert's volunteer squad, most of the calls are in the fall. The guys learn how to look in the forest correctly from their Western colleagues and from their own experience. In Russia, there is no civil "school" where they could show how to properly organize the search for people. Over the years, activists have developed their own rules, experienced volunteers began to tell newcomers how to work with maps and navigate the terrain. The tacit staff expanded into an information support department, whose members took over calling hospitals and posting information about the disappeared on the Internet.

Lisa Alert's detachment begins to help in the search only after relatives write an official statement to the police, but then volunteers can act independently from the police. (it's just that the police don't work, and so we try to keep in touch with them on any searches) This is rather an exception to the rule in this area of ​​charity. Some volunteer centers have an agreement with the Ministry of Internal Affairs that they do not begin to operate without coordinating the work with the police. On the website of the community of volunteers "Search for Missing Children", you can fill out a special form for missing loved ones. “After receiving the application, the volunteers contact their relatives, clarify the information, and the coordinators and volunteers, depending on the region, start working. Now we are working in almost 40 regions of Russia. There are cases when the relatives of the disappeared have not yet had time to submit a statement to the police, then we can do this, after contacting the police through our channels, the police contact the family and start active joint work on the search. " Search for Missing Children, leader of its youth wing Nikolay Kovalev.

Every third of the missing people is a child or teenager. Of course, some of the missing adults and minors alike are people of deviant behavior. But there are not so many of them, contrary to the common stereotype. The cases that Lisa Alert's detachment is dealing with are mainly misfortunes from which no one is insured: he went into the forest, went fishing, for a walk and got lost, separated from the group, fell through the ice ...

Police officers, who are constrained by the letter of the law, point out that in fact, those unfortunate 72 hours are the most valuable time. Finding a missing person in the first three days is easier. But even if you started an independent search or attracted volunteers, it is imperative that you contact the accident registration office of the territorial police department or call the local department of internal affairs. When contacting the police department in person, you will need a passport, information about the person's social circle and, of course, a description of the person's appearance.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted back in 1989, states that the parent is responsible not only for the conditions of keeping the child, but also for his safety. In Russia, there is no law that would imply punishment for the loss of a minor, only for kidnapping. True, there is an article on "Failure to fulfill the duties of raising a minor", but the maximum that threatens for its failure is correctional labor or a fine. The responsibility of relatives for the missing baby is rather a moral question. No one undertakes to judge those who have lost a child. In any case, domestically.

What can we say about the responsibility for the missing adult. No one will ask a person of age: why did you let him (her) out of the house alone, how could he (she) go there alone? These questions cannot be answered, but it can be extremely difficult to stop asking yourself in case of unhappiness. And those who help people in trouble to look for their loved ones do not let these issues hang in the air.

Natalia Malinovskaya, "Lisa Alert", psychologist:

- I give lectures on the prevention of escapes, abductions and loss of children called "Lisa Alert Speaks." In this sense, there are two age categories - under 10 and after 11 years. They are approximate, of course, but before 10 it is still a child, and after 11 it is already a teenager and it makes sense to talk not about loss, but, most likely, about escape.

You have no idea how many children are being recruited over the Internet. Literally and figuratively. For example, one 11-year-old girl from Istra almost left for Chelyabinsk. She was attracted by some kind of witches or wolves. As a result, the girl was stopped only at the station. Many pedophiles operate over the internet. In my practice, there was a case when a girl was recruited by terrorists to make a living bomb out of her, but they were stopped when they tried to take her out. Cases can be very serious. Therefore, it is extremely important to be in contact with your child, to know how he lives and with whom he communicates.

With little more stories about "lost". And this is entirely the responsibility of the parents, who for some reason think that the state or society should be responsible for the child. I don’t understand at all how it is possible, after constant stories with maniacs, to send your child somewhere alone without any safety net and control. No amount of music lessons are worth putting a child in danger.

There is no specific age when you can already walk alone. It depends on the psyche. If the child can already soberly assess the situation, you can let go. But only parents can understand whether a child is ready for this. By the way, when children walk in twos or threes, the likelihood that something bad will happen to them is very small.

Three tips for parents:

1. To have constant contact with the child by phone. Talk to him on the phone while he goes somewhere alone. The biggest statistics for lost children are children who went either to school or from school.

2. You always need to know how long the child's path or walk will take. You can track this path using a tracker - a special beacon that determines the location of the child.

3. If the child is missing for half an hour, even for twenty minutes, you need to sound the alarm. For example, in the case of Zhenya Melnikova, who disappeared in 2013, the alarm was sounded five hours after the child was lost! A maniac kills within two hours.

Dmitry Viktorovich Vtorov, coordinator of the community of volunteers "Search for Missing Children":

- The first and most important thing that needs to be conveyed to every child is that if he is lost and does not know where to go, you need to contact the police. To the department, to the patrol car, just a policeman in uniform. Come up and say: I'm lost. If you have not found a policeman, go to the subway, contact the officer on duty. Go to any shopping center, contact the security guard. You shouldn't be afraid of these people. The guards have instructions on how to proceed in such cases. The main thing here is that in the end information about the missing child gets to the police as soon as possible.

You just need to be afraid of kind uncles and aunts on the street. Of course, most likely, the person to whom the child decided to turn will turn out to be good, but there is also a chance that the child will find himself in a bad situation. Once the lost child was taken by an elderly woman and fed and watered at home for two days, without saying a word to the police.

Here's another case. The child is lost in the park. The parents were distracted and did not notice. A woman went with him to the mall and handed him over to security. The guards reported to the police. And the child was found without filing an application, because his parents were already in one of the departments.

In general, in Russia, society does not know what to do with lost children. And more often than not, they are simply not paid attention to. An experiment was carried out. A five-year-old child was walking alone on a square in a large Russian city. It took 20 minutes before a man asked him where his parents were and what he was doing here.

And there was a case when a child walked along the median strip on the highway and no one stopped. Only two hours later the child was picked up by a passing patrol car.

Anfisa Kalistratova, social psychologist:

It is necessary to bring up an active life position in the child from birth. The child must be prepared for possible adversity. It is imperative: to know the home and work address of the parents, the mobile phones of parents and relatives, to know who can be contacted and who cannot. Children are capable of this at the age of three or four.

The child must be able to stand up for himself. Children need to be taught that they should beware of strangers, what communication with a stranger can lead to, and how to behave if someone is going to kidnap the child. The child should know that at such moments you can scream, scratch, kick on the legs, and so on. That is, a child who knows how to stand up for himself is very good. Usually such children grow up with parents who do not seek to "crush" the child for themselves and who regularly talk to their children.

You need a little, but regularly give your child freedom and responsibility. But one that he can handle. For example, go to the store next to the house for milk, then for milk and bread, then a larger list and the store a little further, first with money without change, then with big money, and so on.

By the way, in preparation for this comment, I conducted a small survey among children of nine to ten years old. Each of them argued that he would never enter a minibus without money and would not spend the money intended for travel on something else. Draw your own conclusions.

A three-year-old child who disappeared last Saturday in the Irkutsk region was found. Alas, dead.

Late in the evening of July 29, he and his parents were resting on the beach of a lake in the city of Tulun. When the sun went down, the holidaymakers began to set off fireworks. When the fireworks died down, the parents discovered the boy's disappearance. He was searched for by forensic investigators, 100 police officers, rescuers of the Ministry of Emergencies and 200 volunteers. The child's body was found at the bottom. No bodily harm - the child drowned ...

These tragedies are being repeated. The peak falls in the summer: when people are knocking into the forest, rivers and lakes. Many carelessly take children into nature. But they behave as if the child is playing in the yard: where will he go? Meanwhile, children just regularly go somewhere ...

The 14-year-old Yana Tamocheva, who disappeared in the Siberian taiga on July 24, was searched for by the whole world. Police officers, fighters of the Russian Guard, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, volunteers, military men, fishermen, hunters combed hundreds of kilometers of taiga, and drones and a light-engine aircraft circled in the sky.

And so - for six days, every day the hope for a successful outcome became less and less. Finally, late on Sunday evening, July 30, a message appeared on the Internet page of the volunteer society "Search for Missing Children - Krasnoyarsk": "Yana has been found! She is alive!"

Yana with her mother and two sisters went to pick berries. The family does not live well, collecting and selling wild plants is the main source of income. First, they filled the buckets together, then dispersed. In the evening, mom and the girls returned home, but she did not worry about Yana. I was worried only when the teenager did not appear by nightfall.

Hundreds of professional rescuers and volunteers who do not know each other always find a common language. Trouble brings us closer. Photo:

The search went on in the most difficult conditions. Daily rains have turned the surrounding roads into impassable mud. There is nothing to say about off-road. After the rain, the lawn grass rose as if it were alive - where can we find traces here?

The forest in those places is multi-tiered, with dense undergrowth, and grass is also human-sized. We didn't even see the rescuers from the sky. Even the thermal imagers of drones could not penetrate the taiga "carpet". And in the end I was lucky! - Vladimir Podlegaev, deputy head of the Crisis Management Center of the Regional Emergencies Ministry, told RG. - Yana herself went out to the people, having heard screams and shots from a gun. Weakened, of course. She says that all this time she lived only on berries. But she was doing well. Fighting girl!

The girl has no visible injuries. I'm only very tired, - said the regional health ministry.

As Siberian rescuers say, the "hot season", when people have to get lost from the forest almost every day, will continue.

People are lost in the forest due to inability to navigate, lack of a map and compass, poor eyesight and hearing. Most of the lost are retirees. They overestimate their capabilities, wander into the deep taiga and cannot find their way back, - sums up the director of the Krasnoyarsk regional institution "Spasatel" Alexander Kobets.

Roberta was saved by a volunteer

In June, 19-year-old Pavel Karpenko from the small Ural village of Pyshma rescued a four-year-old toddler who was sought after by more than two thousand people. The boy had few chances: without food, alone with the taiga, where ticks rage, bears stagger. The child disappeared on the banks of the Reftinsky reservoir. Mom stayed in the tent, father and son went to get firewood. But the boy was tired, he asked to see his mother, and his father sent him alone: ​​it was only ten meters in a straight line to the tent. However, the baby disappeared.

Rescuers, volunteers, police officers and dog handlers with dogs were looking for him, the police used a drone with a thermal imager. On the second day, more than 1200 people took part in the search, on the third - more than two thousand. Experienced tourists from neighboring cities, from Yekaterinburg, came to help. “We need more volunteers! A lot!” They called on social networks. “Keep in mind that walking through swamps and windbreaks is incredibly difficult.

Pavel Karpenko was not a volunteer, he knew about the search teams by hearsay. I came across an advertisement for a search on the Internet. I phoned the Sokol search party and took a taxi to the meeting place with my friend.

Rescuers wrapped Kirill in their uniform and carried him out of the forest in their arms. Photo: Press service of the EMERCOM of Russia for the Bryansk region

A detachment - six search engines and Pasha with a friend - moved into the forest. After eight kilometers, children's footprints were found. We examined it, but did not react much: many have already passed here, so they have inherited it. And Pavel stepped aside and followed the trail. He was in a hurry, was afraid of getting lost, worried that he had disobeyed the commander and went AWOL.

After 20 minutes, he saw little Dima: he was lying on his back in a hole, next to a fallen birch tree. The eyes are open. Doesn't move.

I thought he was already dead. I reported on the radio that I had found the boy, - says Pavel. - But he heard my voice and moved! Alive! He could not speak, he just smiled ... At first I carried him in my arms to the road. Then we made a stretcher from improvised means and carried the boy where the ambulance could drive up. He was taken to the hospital in serious condition - bitten by ticks, mosquitoes, ants, with frostbitten hands and feet ... But the child is very strong. The boy managed to survive in the taiga - he slept wherever he could, ate grass, drank water from the swamp.

Pavel was nominated for the award by the Emergencies Ministry and the Investigative Committee. In social networks - thousands of thanks to the guy from Pyshma.

Through the swamps and the dark forest

Eight-year-old Kirill Petrukhin, who spent two days wandering in the forests and swamps near Bryansk, has already been presented with a new bicycle. The search for the student became an example of coherence and literacy not only of people in uniform, but also of volunteers.

Photo: Press service of the EMERCOM of Russia for the Bryansk region

Kirill disappeared on Monday, when he cycled to Glazhenka. I went to the store, bought ice cream and disappeared. The next day, only his bike was found, and a defective one. There was an assumption that he could have been hit by a car - there is a busy road nearby. At first, several dozen people took part in the search, and on the second day - about 300 people. Moreover, some women came with babies. Volunteers came from different cities of Russia.

A resident of the Moscow region, Vladimir Popov, who, together with other volunteers and rescuers, was the first to hear Kirill, spoke about the search for the boy. "I find out that they have found a boy's bike. In my head, thoughts interrupt each other. It is far to Bryansk - at least five and a half hours to go ... But what is it? You stood in a traffic jam for almost 5 hours, and there is a child in the forest!"

Bryansk volunteer Sergei Baranovsky says that everyone's eyes were shining, everyone asked: give me a route! They fell into the swamp, but no longer paid attention to snakes and other reptiles.

By nightfall, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations set up a tent for rest. There was enough water and food, but they were constantly brought up by someone. The hunt groups arrived and, having received routes, departed.

The search headquarters was already in a pandemonium. Rescuers and police arrived. There is not always a harmony between them and the volunteers. At first, it didn't go too well here either. An irritated Emergencies Ministry officer told the volunteers to go in a chain in search of. Popov's group received the equipment and began to comb the square. Most of it is a swamp. Lined up, started the first pass. My feet were bogged down in a quagmire.

It is even more difficult to get through the thickets. An employee of the Ministry of Emergencies comes to the conclusion: "Even if we cannot get through, will a child get in here?" But the child could not be lost, but he was gone.

Pavel Karpenko learned about the state of emergency from the Internet and took a taxi to look for the child. Photo: From personal archive

Popov's group decided to rebuild and make passages perpendicular to the previous movement in order to close a small area covered with windbreaks and nettles. In a few meters - impassable willow and reeds. Popov orders to leave. Finally, "work on the response" - they shout. And suddenly from somewhere you hear: "I'm here! Paa-paa!" Popov sets the azimuth on the compass for the sound, his heart breaks from his chest. Swamp, reeds, knee-deep water are no longer an obstacle. After 80 meters, they see: Cyril is knee-deep in water, around him there are reeds twice as high as his height, his legs, arms and face are cut with grass, blisters from nettles and insect bites.

Rescuers wrapped the child up and took turns carrying him in their arms.

Investigators decided not to close the criminal case until they figure out all the details of what happened.

The boy's parents must answer whether everything is okay at their home and how it happened that Cyril was left unattended.

How to become a volunteer

Endurance and patience

No country in the world can maintain a staff of professional rescuers sufficient to search for all the lost. Too many people in the world are lost. Therefore, one cannot do without volunteers, this is the world experience.

Who will be recruited to volunteer for the search and rescue team? The editors asked the staff of the legendary squad "Lisa Alert" to answer this question.

Technically, everything is simple: go to the site http://lizaalert.org

Fill out the form, enter your phone number in the SMS-mailing database in order to receive messages about the beginning of active searches. Actually, that's all. When necessary, you will be called.

But before signing up for volunteers, you need to know:

Physically healthy people are involved in active searches. Rescuers often have to endure heavy physical exertion. Therefore, it is important that the resources of the detachment are not wasted on the evacuation of a volunteer who overestimated his strength.

For people with disabilities and those with chronic diseases, the path to rescuers is not ordered. In this matter, any help will come in handy, up to the dissemination of information on the Internet, printing and posting leaflets. Leaving in search, someone must remain "in the rear", that is, work as a cook, repair equipment and equipment.

Do not neglect courses such as first aid. Even if you are a licensed doctor. You can always discover something new for yourself. A doctor has equipment and medicines in his daily life, and a rescuer operates in extreme conditions, where he has to improvise and use whatever means is at hand.

It is advisable to have experience in hiking, have a suitable craft (be a medic or mountaineer). This is a big plus, but by no means a prerequisite. When combing the terrain, representatives of all specialties will come in handy.

You need to be prepared for the fact that you may be invited to search at any time of the day or night, in any weather.

People with a stable psyche are accepted into volunteers. The search can be terminated at any time. Both because the person was found, and because the call turned out to be false.

How to call for help

Until the battery runs out

If a trouble happened to your loved ones - they did not return from a forest walk - help can be called in in different ways. This is primarily "112" - a single number for the rescue service.

But there are other options as well. You can ask for help through the site http://lizaalert.org: leave a request for children and the elderly who have disappeared in Moscow or the Moscow region (this site is an example, different regions have different Internet resources).

The main criteria for an active search:

A child under the age of 18, an elderly person or a disabled person who disappeared in Moscow or the Moscow region.

The time of loss at the time of filing the application is not more than 24 hours.

The presence of reasonable evidence that the missing person is lost / lost or is under the influence of third parties.

The existence of reasonable assumptions that the missing person is in danger.

Availability of sufficient and reliable information, which makes it possible to use it to provide assistance.

Please note - the site and other information technologies are applicable if you have lost a loved one. If you are the one who got lost and there is a connection, then there is only one option: dial "112".

The operator of the rescue service will answer. You have to prepare for the conversation: being worried, the person starts talking a lot, wasting a precious battery. If conciseness and concreteness are not your strong point, then mentally rehearse the conversation. Leave your emotions for later, report only the facts. Namely:

1. It is necessary to tell the operator his name and surname, where he came from and at what time, age and state of health.

2. If you remember - tell the phone numbers of your relatives.

3. You will be asked: how did you go, where did you turn? Let's say we crossed a river, walked along a lake, clearings, passed a swamp - all this is important information. But to talk about how you were bitten by mosquitoes and midges - no. Answer clearly, understandably and as meaningfully as possible.

How to help rescuers

Don't fund scammers

If unknown people persistently ask you to transfer money to current accounts and virtual wallets "to save children and adults", most likely they are not rescuers. Well, or at least not the Lisa Alert search and rescue squad. Not asking for or accepting money is their principled position.

Nevertheless, finding people is quite a costly and resource-intensive activity, so any help is invaluable. On its website, Lisa Alert clearly indicates what the urgent need is. For example, at the time of this writing, rescuers need 36 positions: from compasses and Sobol 4x4 vehicles or UAZ Patriot vehicles to rolls of scotch tape with the logo and phone numbers of rescuers and a metal detector of a certain model.

Step-by-step instructions: the child is missing

1. Look at the clock and write down the time when you realize that the child has disappeared.

2. In the house: check all closets, baskets of linen, in beds and under beds, inside large household appliances and any vehicles, attics, sheds and basements.

3. If you are sure that the child is not in the home, contact your local police station.

4. In public places: immediately contact the managers, the information service or security and at the same time to the police station.

5. Be prepared to give your last name, first name, date of birth, height, weight, special features (glasses, moles, scars, etc.), describe the clothes and the place of loss.

6. In the police, demand the acceptance of your application, number and surname, name and patronymic of the person who accepted it. Write down the date and time of the application.

7. There are no "24 hours" or "three days" limiting the acceptance of a report on the loss - these are philistine myths. Search activities must begin immediately.

8. In case of refusal to accept the application, immediately contact the prosecutor's office.

Specifically

1. Before going to the forest, think over the route. Charge your phone battery, take matches, a knife, a compass, a flashlight and a whistle with you (the last two items from the "mushroom picker mini-arsenal" will come in handy in case you have to give light and sound signals).

2. If you are planning to spend a long time in the forest - bring more food and drink.

3. If you do get lost, the main thing is not to panic! The direction of movement can be restored if we remember which side the sun or the moon was, where the wind was blowing from, where the clouds were sailing.

4. If this fails, go to the sound and look for a railroad, highway or power line, they can lead you to civilization. It is useful to keep to the river bank: go downstream.

5. Remember the notorious "rule of the left foot": a person who does not follow the route with his left foot walks a little wider than his right, so he makes a circle unnoticed. It is not necessary, after making one circle, to do the second and third. Better to stop and wait for help.