Missing children's information printed on slipper tags

Missing children's information on slipper tags. [Photo/Ningbo Evening News]

A short clip depicting slippers bearing the information of missing children in a supermarket in Zhoukou city, Henan province has been hailed by many netizens.

The slippers were manufactured by a factory named "Yuntuo" in Cixi, a county-level city of Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. The factory was established by Cai Lei, 43, a Henan native, in 2009.

In 2015, Cai became a volunteer at baobeihuijia.com (Baby Come Home), China's first nonprofit people finder website, to help his friend find his missing child.

"I've seen many families posting missing person posters on the street and this made me wonder if there was any way I could help them and let more people see the missing child's information," Cai said during telephone interview by Ningbo Evening News.

In 2016, Cai started to print missing children's information on slipper tags.

His act of kindness has also inspired Mao Wei, general manager of Ningbo Cizhou Technology Network Co Ltd, a Cixi-based shoe maker, to follow suit.

As a father of two children, Mao said: "Seeing how these children cannot reunite with their parents, I thought we ought to do what we can like Cai.”

The two companies have to date sold more than 40 million pairs of slippers with labels bearing missing children's information.

While the move has been praised by many netizens, some have also criticized it as a means of "making money out of missing children".

Baobeihuijia.com responded on March 16 that it is supportive of any companies that willing to help spread missing children's information, which can be done only after approval by public security authorities.