Childrens "Passport" Now A Reality
According to official statistics, though most of the missing children appear within hours of going missing, there are three reports daily of missing children.

It is no secret of the danger children face today, especially walking to and from school. There is no shortage of drug dealers and abusers lurking near the home, along the way and around schools.

Some cases like that of Oswaldo Fabricio in 2002 and Katia Vanessa in 2003 shocked the nation when both children went missing and found murdered. Many other cases of missing children and never found have been reported.

To face this growing problem, the Ministerio de Educación Pública (MEP) and in co-ordination with the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) have put into place a project that will give police the tools to located missing children much easier.

Every child from preschool to fourth grade  will now by issued a "student passport" which will include a description, photo and fingerprint of the child. The passport can then be used to locate the child in the event he or she goes missing.

The program was announced by Rocío Solís, director of the Área de la Niñez y la Adolescencia del MEP, last year. The program was costly and the process took some time, but is now finally available.

The director was emphatic that the word "passport" has no relation to the leaving of the country, but to identify children under the age of 12.

The first stage of the project will see 40.000 students in the San José Metropolitan area and then expand to the rest of the country's 500.000 students.

The process started  this week at the Escuela Buenaventura Corrales, one of three schools where OIJ agents arrived with fingerprinting equipment. The Kodak franchisee IFSA donated the first 40.000 digital photos for the project.

Carlos Roberto Arias, IFSA manager, said that current technology means that they don't have to take pictures of the children every year, the technology can create a physical change to the original photo taking into account the time passed as may be required if the need arises.

Also, Arias said his company will make available a series of photos to police and family to help find the child in the event of a kidnapping or gone missing.

In the future, the "passport" will also include the child's DNA.