Brazil’s missing children: Technology, community efforts race to recover thousands unaccounted for

For this edition of VIEW FROM RIO, Carys Garland is pleased to welcome our Jan Onoszko. In Brazil, nearly 24,000 children and adolescents were reported missing in 2025. The figures represent not just a statistical spike, an 8% increase from the previous year, but a deeper, systemic challenge. In this edition, our correspondent explores how bureaucracy, broken systems, and social fault lines converge to keep thousands of young people at risk and families in anguish. The growing use of technology and community-driven efforts seek to reverse these trends.