FOUND: English girl featured in Roma Missing Children video is safe and well

The 15-year-old, who can no longer be identified for legal reasons now that she has been found, was one of 13 missing children whose name and photo featured in the video to announce the signing of Turkish defender Mert Cetin on Friday.

All summer AS Roma have been using the viral nature of player transfer announcements on social media to raise awareness for individual cases of missing children around the world – splitting the video screen between footage of the new signing arriving at the club and posters for children currently separated from their loved ones.

The video – which featured three British children, one Italian, two Kenyans, four Americans and three kids from Guatemala – generated over 800,000 views across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, before being removed earlier on Thursday to protect the identity of the girl who has been found.

An edited video has now been published to ensure the cases of the other children originally featured in the video can still be highlighted.

The decision to feature the girl in the Roma video was made by Missing People, a UK charity that AS Roma has been working with on the initiative since the beginning of July.

“We’re delighted to confirm that a teenage girl from London who featured in an AS Roma Missing Children video last week has been found safe and well,” said Ian Roullier, Publicity Coordinator for Missing People.

“It’s important to allow people to continue with their life after returning, and respect their right to be forgotten, which is why we won’t share her name, however we are pleased to announce the news that she is no longer missing.

"Our vision is that every missing person is found safe, and we hope that all of the other children from the video will return to safety very quickly.

“When we publicise an appeal for a missing person, our hope is that it will reach people far and wide. AS Roma have provided a platform to make this happen. Not only does it raise awareness of the many missing children across the world, and the issue of missing itself, but the work we and other charities, like the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in America, do to support missing people and their families.

"We’re so grateful to AS Roma, as well as their thousands of fans, the fans of other clubs, and members of the public for engaging with these videos and helping our reach go even further. This support enables us to continue our work and bring more missing children back to safety.”

Since launching the campaign to announce the arrival of Leonardo Spinazzola with two videos in partnership with Telefono Azzurro and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children - one featuring Italian children, the other featuring American kids - the initiative has become a global concern.

After partnering with Missing People in the UK to highlight British cases, the club began working with the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children globally as well as many other charities and governments across the world.

“When we were informed by Missing People that the girl who had featured in our transfer announcement video for Mert Cetin had been found, it was the best possible news we could hear,” said AS Roma’s Paul Rogers.

“When we began this project, our goal was to try and use social media for social good. We have a great platform and great opportunity to reach a big audience and we wanted to do something this summer to raise awareness about individual cases of missing children around the world and also the incredible work that charities and organisations like Missing People, the NCMEC and the ICMEC do every day in trying to reconnect those missing with their loved ones.

"For us, it's an honour to support, even in a small way, the great and tireless work being done by so many amazing people.”

To date, 90 children from Italy, America, England, Belgium, Canada, Kenya, Guatemala, Albania, Greece, Wales, Ecuador, Argentina and Spain have featured in the transfer announcement videos this summer – many geo-targeted specifically at those countries.

The full list of missing children we have featured in the videos so far can be found on our dedicated Missing Children Campaign page.

You can follow @MissingPeople on Twitter and make a donation via their website. Your donation could help answer a call to a missing child who may be in danger and has no one else to turn to.