History

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Our beginnings

The ITAKA Foundation (Polish non-profit organization) was established on March 22, 1999 thanks to the commitment and great efforts of Wojciech Tochman, then the reporter for „Gazeta Wyborcza” (one of the biggest Polish daily newspapers) and collaborator of the Polish Television. Tochman had already been involved in the search for the missing people through various articles and TV appearances.

Gradually, he came to realize that missing people and their families are in need of comprehensive help on every stage of the search and often after its completion as well. Since a journalist could not provide that kind of professional psychological, legal and social help, an organization uniting people of different professions who jointly draw up methods of helping missing people had to be established.

The notarial deed founding ITAKA - Foundation for Helping People Suffering from Disappearance Problems was signed on March 22, 1999 by Wojciech Tochman and his chosen associates: Bożena Dudko, Anna Jurkiewicz, Lidia Ostałowska and Alicja Tomaszewska.

First projects

Our first activities were financed by the Stefan Batory Foundation. The ITAKA helpline – our first project – was launched on September 2, 1999. It operated twice a week for four hours. We employed our first full-time worker in February 2000. On March 15, 2000 we launched our website www.zaginieni.pl. It soon turned out that apart from psychological support, missing people’s families also expected us to monitor police activities regarding their case. But our first and foremost task has always been looking for their missing relatives.

Development

The number of cases reported to our Foundation has been gradually increasing. We had to employ and train new members of our staff. Currently there are 30 people working in our interdisciplinary team: 15 full-time employees and 15 volunteers (the numbers can vary slightly). We have among us psychologists, lawyers, social workers, policemen, doctors, journalists and promotion specialists. Our many years of experience have provided us with the unique knowledge allowing ITAKA teams to successfully search for the missing people both in Poland and abroad.

Because of increasing needs we had to extend our working hours. We launched our 24h helpline in 2005. Only a few Polish non-government organizations work 24 hours a day.

Stabilization

In 2005 we changed the name of our foundation to ITAKA – Centre for Missing People. The new name better reflects the nature and scope of our activity.

Nowadays – apart from conducting our everyday search for the missing people – we also carry out various programs: Runaways, Depression Treatment, Safe Work and Missing Persons International Division.

We launched our new, redesigned website: zaginieni.pl in July 2008. The previous was visited by nine millions Internet users over the period of eight years.

Over the last nine years of ITAKA’s activity we have recorded nearly 7, 000 disappearances in our database (currently more than a 1, 000 annually and this figure on the steady increase).

We offer our phone advice to more than 5, 000 people who call us annually. ITAKA solves (or is directly involved in solving) nearly 400 cases of disappearances every year.

ITAKA – Centre for Missing People is a non-government organization. We enjoy the status of a public benefit organization and provide our help free of charge. However, searching for the missing people costs money.
We do not get regular donations from the national budget. We are able to conduct our search for the missing people thanks to the work of volunteers as well as the generosity of our sponsors and individual donators. We thank you all for your trust and good will on behalf of the missing people’s families.

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