Step 1 to making a better world: PROTECT ALL CHILDREN

Walk out the door yesterday to go food shopping... before I make it down the stairs a girl comes up to me and asks if I know anyone missing a little boy... Yeah. That's how it started. So I say no and she points over to a little boy who looks about 2 years old. He is wearing a t-shirt, shorts and no shoes...its been snowing and cold in NYC so everything about this picture is odd. I go over to the boy and an older woman who is holding his hand. He seems oblivious of everything and is jumping up and down on his barefoot and seems in his own world. She asks if I know him, I say no. She explains she saw him running in the street...I'm in shock. She asks a passing couple if they know the kids. No. While they are discussing this in Patois I mention that the boy must be freezing and we have to find him clothes and call the police. I take the boy back to the front of the woman's house where we wait for her to get a sweater and the couple goes to their house to get some shoes and socks for him. At least 4 people including my mom and sis call the police...they don't arrive... We ask people door to door if they know this little boy. I ask him what his name is...he just says "no" and goes back to playing. We ask where he lives....he just points...in 2 separate directions... at least 30 or more minutes pass without either the police or his parents showing up...finally we see an old woman looking around confused and then sees us and puts her hand to her mouth in shock. She walks over...its his "grandmother". At this point we don't want to hand him over as we cant be sure of that and the police have already been called. Next come his "mother" and sister. She looks in shock and tells a story about him somehow leaving the house when the door was unlocked. He has delayed speech so is unable to say much... We continue to wait for the police....This all happened yesterday...the police never showed up... There's a LOT I can say here...but I'll just leave it at that.

And this random situation pushed me to look back into the missing boy I had joined the search for months ago... Avonte Oquendo... As I do not follow the news I wasn't aware what had happened until now...So sad...  I really hope people see stories like this and we all put the CARE and SAFETY of ALL children first and foremost in our minds and actions: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/nyregion/remains-found-in-queens-are-matched-to-missing-autistic-boy.html?_r=0