GALA FOR CHILD PROTECTION
By Vincent Lyn
Tuesday May 24, my fiance and I were invited by Four Time Golden Globe Nominee, Emmy Award Winning Actor Armand Assante to a fund raising black tie event held at Cipriani’s in NYC. It was the Gala for Child Protection — International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. An alarming statistic that one million children go missing every year.
IMEC is an organization that makes the world a safer place for children by tackling complex issues related to missing children, child sexual abuse, and child sexual exploitation. The vulnerability of missing children is terrifying, the ways children are abused are horrifying, and the exploitation of children by adults is heart-wrenching. We know these terrible situations impact children from every ethnicity, religion, and income level, at every age, in every nation. Failure to protect children is the failure of our society as a whole. and each of us has a social, intellectual, and moral imperative to do what we can to make the world safer for children.
It was an extremely poignant and emotional evening with a beautiful and resonating opening performance by Radhika Vekaria a fellow Grammy Member and Winner of the Global Peace Song Awards 2018.
Master of Ceremony Kate Snow, Anchor of NBC Nightly News Sunday
Award-Winning Senior National Correspondent for NBC News opened the event as we all took a moment of silence for the 19 children and 2 teachers who were brutally killed in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Champion for Children Award was awarded to Caroline Humer International Child Protection Expert and responsible for designing the Amber Alert that has delivered more than one billion Amber Alert impressions to 180 million U.S internet devices.
HONORING:
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Honorable Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator
PARTNER IN PROTECTION
A.S. Roma
European Football League
EVERYDAY HERO AWARD
Manoj Abraham, India Police Service, Additional Director General of Police Kerala, India
EVERYDAY HERO AWARD
Carlos Gamarra, Attaché, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Embassy — Guatemala
EVERYDAY HERO AWARD
Detective Lawrence Okoth, Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Kenya
LEGACY TRIBUTE
Dr. Franz B. Humer
Ret. Chair, ICMEC Board of Directors
It was an honor to be in the company of like-minded individuals all doing amazing work for the protection of children. Its tireless work but child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Therefore it is every adult and parents priority to safeguard and protect our children. The event raised $120,000 dollars to IMEC — International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children.
Vincent Lyn
CEO/Founder at We Can Save Children
International Human Rights Commission
Director of Creative Development at African Views Organization
Economic & Social Council at United Nations
Editor in Chief at Wall Street News Agency
Rescue & Recovery Specialist at International Confederation of Police & Security Experts