Social Networking Helps Find Lost Boy With Autism in Joburg

At about 4.30pm on Saturday, an urgent message was sent out on the WhatsApp groups and Facebook community groups in my neighbourhood in northwestern Joburg… writes Gus Silber.

A 12-year-old boy named Charlie, who has autism, had gone missing from his home in the suburb of Quellerina.

“He is most probably on a white bicycle,” said the message, along with a detailed description and contact numbers.

Immediately, people sprang into action across a wide area, spanning several suburbs, with a busy freeway in-between. Security companies joined in the search, working together with members of community Policing Forums, or CPFs.

In total, more than 60 private patrol vehicles were involved in the street-by-street search, as the sky darkened with the promise of a late-afternoon highveld storm.

Little bits of advice streamed in – “look in trees, he’s a climber”; “no, he does not have a cellphone”; “If anyone does spot him, please tell him in Afrikaans that he must stay with you” – as well as reports of sightings along the way.

Someone announced on WhatsApp that a search party was going to be meeting at the BP garage in Bergbron. Someone else, from a suburb far outside the area, offered to coordinate a mountain biking group with bike lights to “search all the trails”.

The sky grew darker, the prayer emojis more frequent. Then, at 6.06pm came the news: the missing boy had been found, safe and sound, near a church in Newlands, about 5km from his home. That’s quite a cycle ride.

But more than that, it’s proof positive of the power of social networking to bring people together in a common cause. In days gone by, it would have taken a huge effort, and a coordinated information campaign on print and electronic media, just to get the message out.

Now, it goes out in seconds, as status updates are copied and pasted and shared across multiple groups and platforms. Then people respond, neighbours, family, friends and strangers, all looking out, all trying to help, all going out of their way to solve a crisis.

Social networks, and social networking groups, are often criticised for bringing out the worst in people, and there is some truth to that; but the greater truth, and it is demonstrated and proved over and over again, is that they are equally capable of bringing out the best.

But my favourite anecdote of the day came via a Facebook post from one of the searchers, who said: “There was a kid cycling on a bike around Bergbron, and when I stopped to ask him if he had seen anything, he just screamed, ‘I’m not Charlie!'”

By Gus Silber

Joburg West Responders, who co-ordinated the search, said that Charlie had left home on his bicycle after finding the gate remote. Once he was found, JHB West Responders rushed to the scene and Charlie was secured until his family arrived.

“Our senior member then went to the family home to offer any further assistance,” they said on Facebook. “Thank you to everyone that assisted in the search. It really goes to show what can be achieved when the community comes together for someone they’ve never met before…”

According to Anita Heyl Snyman, the family received many kind invitations from local restaurants to come in and have dinner that night… “but after their eventful day – and with Charlie being slightly out of sorts – they could not take up on any of the offers”. She said “the reality of life with an autistic child is that you cannot connect with your child in ordinary ways. They cannot share their burdens and fears as the rest of us do. Very often, busy and noisy environments (such as restaurants) add to their stress…”

***

GUS SILBER is a fantastic South African journalist, author, scriptwriter, speechwriter and tweeter. He “plays with words and sometimes works with them too”.
Follow Gus on Twitter: @gussilber or on Facebook: Gus Silber