Clowns help children understand disappearances in Mexico With playful songs and stories, clowns help Mexican children understand their country's missing persons' crisis, and give them and their parents pieces of papers where they can anonymously share the location of a mass grave or say that one of their loved ones is missing. Since the government militarized the war against drug trafficking, Mexico has witnessed a rise in violence and disappearances, with around 40,000 people still missing. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES