Child Focus

A child's face. Around the inner ring, the inscriptions 'MISSING-DISPARU-VERMISST', 'WWW.CHILDFOCUS.BE' and the country name in three languages — 'BELGIQUE-BELGIË-BELGIEN' — followed by the year 2016. The Brussels mint mark (the helmeted head of Archangel Michael) and the mint director's mark are engraved to left and right. The coin bears the face of Liam Vanden Branden, a child who disappeared without trace in 1996 — the founding year of the Child Focus Foundation for missing and sexually exploited children.

Child Focus is one of the best-known child protection organisations in Europe. The Belgian foundation was established in 1998 as a direct response to the kidnappings and murders linked to the Marc Dutroux case - one of the most shocking criminal cases in postwar Belgian history, one that shook the entire society and reverberated well beyond the country's borders. From the outset, Child Focus specialised in the search for missing and sexually exploited children, and it operates the Europe-wide 116 000 hotline, established as the single emergency number for missing children in the EU. The organisation works closely with police forces, public prosecutors and international partners such as the European AMBER Alert network and Interpol.

In Belgium, Child Focus holds an institutional standing that goes far beyond the role of a typical NGO. The foundation is enshrined in law, receives state co-funding, and works on behalf of the community on prevention, crisis intervention and follow-up care in cases of child abduction, abuse and online exploitation. By the time of its 20th anniversary in 2018, Child Focus had handled tens of thousands of cases. With the Belgian 2-euro commemorative coin of 2016, Belgium honoured the organisation's work, raising a national child-protection project onto a European-wide stage.