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Madeleine McCann - we need YOUR help to try and find this little girl.

885 replies

ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear · 11/05/2007 09:27

This is slipping from the news and the police are starting to scale down their seraches.

Evidence seems to suggest that Madeline may have been taken to Spain and yet very few people out there are aware of what has happened or what she looks like etc.

We need to send as many emails as we can to Spanish businesses with a poster attachment and highlight this case.

I need mumsnetters to volunteer.

I have called in sick today to get this started but this is a massive task and I cannot do it on my own.

Please let me know if you can help.

OP posts:
GloveandSpecialsauce · 11/05/2007 09:51

And also plenty of the regional newsspapers!

Bananaknickers · 11/05/2007 09:52

a business from Scotland has put up yhe reward. It was on the radio this morning

ThatBeetroot · 11/05/2007 09:52

estate agents - loads of english ones there

WendyWeber · 11/05/2007 09:53

(from piece in El Pais) - that will encourage the Spanish to help!

sar123 · 11/05/2007 09:55

I'm not sure that the police are scaling down the whole search. I'm sure on R4 this morning they were talking about scaling down the search in the immediate vicinity of the resort and surrounding areas, rather than the entire operation? So maybe it's not as bad as it sounds???? Still it's great to be doing something to help.

ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear · 11/05/2007 09:56

OK beetroot, I have emailed you.

We need to get the poster translated though.

Glove would you be able to help with this?

I am also reluctant to use my business email address to post on here (it would be advertising so will have to think of some other way of sharing it around

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ThatBeetroot · 11/05/2007 09:58

Davina - open a hotmail account

wannaBeWhateverIWannaBe · 11/05/2007 10:02

I think the idea of circulating this poster is great but I do think that you need to tread very carefully.

Firstly, this isn?t our campagne. It?s one thing everyone downloading the poster and sending it to their friends and family and asking them to do the same, but starting up an internet campagne asking for people?s help to find this little girl is another. This family have been to hell and back over the past week, and there can be no doubt that they must feel hugely frustrated at the fact there has been no conclusion, and they most likely feel powerless to do anything about it. So starting a campagne to help bring their little girl back is possibly the only thing they feel that they can do themselves, so if we start up our own campagne we perhaps run the risk of making this family feel that we have taken their only way of doing something out of their hands. I think our first port of call should be to try and get in touch with the family. Perhaps we could try and get a message to one of the Mccann?s extended family through the Hospital where Gerry Mccann works, and try to see if they would feel comfortable with having lots of people actively running this alongside the family. It might also be worthwhile speaking to Leicestershire police, to see if they can contact their liaison officers out in Portugal to check that emailing tv stations/newspapers etc does not in any way prejudice the police investigation.

Secondly, you need to be very selective with the wording of a subject line so as to ensure that you attract attention and so that people don?t consider it to be spam and bin it straight away. If I didn?t know about this case, I would probably bin an email that said ?3 year old girl missing, photo attached?, not because it?s not eye catching, but because in the era of spam we live in, these sorts of emails are all too common ?little girl with cancer wants a million signatures/little boy dying wants this email to go all round the world?? we?ve all seen them, and we?ve all binned them because, for the most part, they?re spam. And especially if they have attachments people are put off by that and consider them to be viruses. So we need to get someone who has run a campagne like this before on side to help with the wording. A journalist perhaps? Also isn?t there a way of imbedding the photograph in the email so that the photograph is viewed as soon as you open the email? That way people don?t have to click on an attachment. I know there?s a way of doing it with sound files, (don?t know how but I?ve received emails that sing to me upon opening) so assume there must be a way of doing it with photos, a techy type might be able to tell us more, tech perhaps?

Lastly, why are we only targeting spain? Yes she may have been taken there but there?s a whole wide world out there and she literally could be anywhere. If we?re serious about circulating emails, then we need to try and do it to as many countries, and in as many languages as possible, so worth putting a call out for anyone, who speaks any language, to come forward to help with possible translations.

sunflowervalley · 11/05/2007 10:03

Have e mailed DH's sister who teaches English in Spain and she has printed off some posters and sent the site details on to a few people to download and print off to circulate.

Hopefully it will help in some way,can't believe they are scaling down the search already.

ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear · 11/05/2007 10:03

I got the poster, many thanks!

I think maybe we should design anew one thoughas it mentions that she was abducted from Portugal but makes no mention of the fact that she could now be in Spain.

I will see if I can find that image of her and design a new poster with updated ino in Spanish

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GloveandSpecialsauce · 11/05/2007 10:05

i am very happy to translate anything.
I have to go to work so hopefully I will be able to do it after 5' oclock.

If it is needed with URGENCY I would suggest to call the follwoing institution in london. It is the best place to learn Spanish around the world and have bilingual staff.

INSTITUTO CERVANTES IN LONDON
102 Eaton Square
London SW1 W9AN

Tlf.:44(0)2072350353

Fax:44(0)2072350329

Explain the situation and I am pretty sure some especialist translater will do it straight away.

Sorry i cannot do it straight away as i must get to work. Very late already! Apologies.

ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear · 11/05/2007 10:06

Wannabe, I can't think why the family would object. Can I just say again that all we are doing is helping them boost a poster campaign that they themselves have started.

It would be great if someone could get in contact with them though but I would also worry about the intrusion.

As for your point re: Spain. Yes I agree she could be anywhere. But it sounds likely that she spent at least some time in Spain and somene could have seen her.

You do France then and I will do Spain!

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ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear · 11/05/2007 10:08

Perhaps we shpuld just circulate the poster that the family have drawn up and come up with a spanish header afor the email.

At least the family have approved that poster.

I will just check on the Sky news website to see if they hav an updated one.

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ToughDaddy · 11/05/2007 10:10

sorry, where can I pick up the poster?

wannaBeWhateverIWannaBe · 11/05/2007 10:10

davina no no I'm not suggesting for one minute that the family would object, just that the family may feel we've taken this out of their hands, especially with talk of now creating a new poster, thus discarding the one they have created, with different wording, and pointing out the difference in Madeleine's iris, a fact which they have either chosen or been advised not to point out.

Callisto · 11/05/2007 10:10

I am happy to help and I do agree with Wannabe on not treading on toes. I also think if you are going to do this properly you need to set tasks - ie I will mail all of the businesses in a particular town, Wannabe will do another and Beetroot will do another. When we have finished we mark those towns on the list and pick another town to target. Most towns have their own websites with business listings. I am sure there are other ways of doing it btw - just a suggestion.

ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear · 11/05/2007 10:11

Glove thank you. I will call them directly and ask them to translate

I need to make a final decision on the text though.

For the subject bar I suggest something along the lines of....

Please help. 3 year old child abducted - believed to be in Spain.

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MrsMar · 11/05/2007 10:13

I agree with you wannabe... it's fantastic that people want to help, and I'm sure the family will be touched, but I think it's important to work with people who are working closely with the investigation. It is so important not to disseminate incorrect information. There may be many things the police aren't telling us, and despite my wholehearted defence of the media earlier, we do get it wrong sometimes too. Is it worth contacting crimestoppers or someone for advice (even legal advice, remember you really don't want to prejudice any future trial by circulating incorrect information) before you proceed?

ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear · 11/05/2007 10:14

Hi Wannabe, I agree. I think we hould use the poster that they have designed as this may have been done with advice from police etc

Calisto, yes we need to draw up a list of tasks and get people to volunteer. I have started a list of business further dwn but we need to add to the list and then break them down into Spanish regions.

I think then it would be a case of using seach engines to look for 'hairdressers in Barcelona' etc and trying to access websites and email adresses.

That was what I had in mind anyway but please make any/all sugesstions.

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GColdtimer · 11/05/2007 10:16

The family have asked that the poster be distributed as widely as possible, the posters are here in French, English and Spanish, it has the crimestoppers number on it: here \here

glassslipper · 11/05/2007 10:17

Suggest you contact someone in Leicestershire police to co-ordinate your efforts witht eh families & the police.

ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear · 11/05/2007 10:17

Hi Mrs Mar, I agree also. This must not interfere with current efforts in anyway, we are just trying to boost the circulation of the poster that they have already designed.

Just need a list of people to start sending it to.

I also think that we should ask people to print the poster off and display it ad to circulate email to friends. This isnt any different to what the family have already done.

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FlossALump · 11/05/2007 10:18

she will be 4 tomorrow.

debbsyandsonn · 11/05/2007 10:18

Davina this is a briliant idea,im happy to help in anyway i can,maybe if you emailed sky news of your intentions,as they seem to be very in touch withbthe uncle in scotlad.Also agree France also as she could be there by now>

sarahinphuket · 11/05/2007 10:20

haven't read the whole thread so someone might have already said this.

I read somewhere this morning that David Beckham is going to appeal for help in Spain sometime before Madeleine's birthday tomorrow