This is not a big country. Land size 5,128 square kilometres.

A place small enough, citizens boast, that mostly everyone knows the other, and one another's business.

More so now that people by the hundreds of thousands are in contact by cellphone and cyberspace.

Which is why it is so incredulous to many that hundreds of our citizens have vanished, just disappeared, as cleanly as a magician's trick.

And this mass of missing people is not confined to any single social standing—men, women, girls and boys, rich and penniless.

The majority find their way back home, but too many are never seen again, as if they never lived at all.

The families grieve as if it were just yesterday, but the missing are forgotten...by most.

Last week in San Fernando, there was an attempt to change this.

To remember the lost ones, a mural was placed to act as a memorial for all the people who have not yet been found.

The unveiling of the mural took place at Atherly's By The Park, Cipero Street, San Fernando.

Author Carol Maharaj, who initiated the idea of the mural, also launched her book, The Dangers of Not Knowing…what you don't know can hurt you.

Maharaj is affiliated with the Missing Persons Association.

She said the purpose of the mural and the unveiling ceremony was to inform and educate people on how to protect themselves and others, raise awareness about the many individuals who are still missing and unaccounted for, and to educate the public about the inaccuracy of using the words "missing persons" synonymously with human trafficking, abductions and kidnappings.

She said families can call a number that will be revealed on the day for free counselling.

"We have those families who have had people missing for years and obviously they will not have closure because the family member is still missing. They don't know if they are in the country, if they were exported out of the country, so on that day as well we will be revealing the name of someone and a contact number that they can actually call for counselling free of charge to them."

Maharaj said even if the families of missing persons cannot attend they will be informed of the service.

Maharaj, who lives at Cocoyea Village in San Fernando, said the purpose of her book was to educate the public. It was not a novel.

"It is more designed as a safety manual, a safety guide…it is a walk through on what to do to secure yourself and your children.

"It starts basically with our Police Service and how we can utilise our Police Service.

"What we need to do when we go to make a report of someone missing because we seem to know our neighbours' business but when our own children or our own loved ones go missing, we can't even identify what they have on, so it starts from there."