Survival Quest: LizaAlert trains volunteers to search for missing children

The LizaAlert search and rescue team has launched training for volunteers to search for missing children. It takes place in the quest format. And the first of them took place on May 23. They were timed to coincide with the International Day of Missing Children. The organizers explained the importance of learning by numbers — every year, LizaAlert receives thousands of applications to find children. So, in 2025 there were more than 11 thousand of them. The vast majority were found, but 91 children died and 49 were never found. When the risk of missing children increases and what was taught on the quest is in the Izvestia report.

Find Arseny in three hours

The quest participants gather in a van with the LizaAlert logo. The team consists of four people. They are given guidance on the teenager Arseny. According to legend, the boy had not returned home for the night the day before. Three hours are given to find the child. This is how the Moscow stage of the project begins.

Players must interview witnesses played by actors, search for clues throughout the city, and come up with their own versions of why the teenager disappeared. The contact with the team is constantly maintained by the coordinator, one of the experienced volunteers of the detachment. His tasks include guiding players, giving hints, and controlling time.

Since one of the participants is a driver, we get into his car to get to the first location. Behind the wheel is a young guy named Vladimir, with his girlfriend Veronica in the next seat. They decided to participate in the game, as they dream of becoming volunteers and searching for missing people.

— We want to look at the "kitchen" of the search process, — explains Vladimir. — To gain knowledge that will be useful to us in a real search.

Of the two of them, Veronica already had a little search experience.

— A boy got lost in our house. When I found out about it, I posted ads and interviewed the neighbors. We found him very quickly," she recalls.

The search is as close as possible to the real conditions. We communicate with the boy's parents in their apartment, inspect his room, and visit the places in the city where he was last seen. The actors don't get out of their role for a second. And the coordinator behaves with us like an experienced search engine who helps novice colleagues.

Our team is coping — Arseny is alive. However, the ending of the game may be different — it all depends on the actions of the search teams, on what choice they make in a particular situation.

Why do children disappear

According to the official statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, in 2025, the internal affairs bodies received more than 190 thousand missing persons reports, of which 33 thousand were about the disappearance of minors. At the end of last year, taking into account previous years, more than 28 thousand people had not been found, among whom more than 1 thousand were children.

According to the data of the LizaAlert detachment, in 2025 they received more than 11 thousand applications for the search for children. We managed to find almost all of them. But 91 children still died, and 49 are still missing.

Teenagers from 13 to 16 years old disappear most often, the most common reason is unauthorized departure from home. The risk of missing items increases before exams.

— We wanted to show how important it is for parents to keep in touch with their child. To know about his problems, to help. Children often cannot cope on their own, which leads to various consequences, including their disappearance," Grigory Sergeev, chairman of the LizaAlert detachment, explained to Izvestia.

According to him, the goal of the game is to show the value of searching in the first minutes and hours, the rapid response of adults and the importance of attention to detail.

Arseny became a collective image of the missing children, who were found by Lisa Albert volunteers.

— Adolescence is a complicated story. During this period, hormonal and physiological changes occur in a person, while children face pressure due to exams and the indifference of others to their problems," explains Irina Saltykovskaya, the curator of the group.

She notes that for many years the issue of missing children has remained in the shadows.

— By organizing such quests, we hope that society will begin to treat children less indifferently. If an adult sees a lost child on the street, he will not pass by, ask him what happened and if he needs help," the curator emphasized.

Grigory Sergeev stressed that they plan to hold games of this format in 25 regions in the summer. About 500 volunteers have been selected to participate in them.