As the threat of the ongoing COVID19 pandemic looms large and the lockdown moves from days into weeks, the toll it has taken on the lives of street children is devastating. The futures of these children amidst a health emergency, now hang in the balance, dependent on help from outside, dependent on help from YOU.

As we write this, our projects, and the children we support on the street and at Railway Stations, are on the brink of shutting down. The entire country is in lockdown and one of the businesses funding three of our station projects has been forced to withdraw their financial support due to the crisis. A fourth project is also now at risk for the same reason.

We are in a race against time to secure new funds or once the country starts to recover, our projects that support around 150 children who arrive alone at the railway stations every month, likely to multiply significantly, will simply not be there.

But the traffickers and predators looking for vulnerable children will be.

In the past 2.5 months, we have ramped up our efforts to reach out to children whom we have repatriated and reunified in the past, to ensure they do not have to come back to a life on the street.

We are happy to report, that along with assistance from our local on-ground partners, we have contacted 10,000+ children and families across 7 states – Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Orissa, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra & Chhattisgarh. Many of their families were found to be in extreme distress, requiring food, groceries and basic essentials. With the resources and networks we have available, we have supported 860+ families, including 2400+ children, with 3 meals per day.

We have also gone the extra mile, and provided psycho-social support to 4000+ children and 4100+ adults, with the help of trained mental health experts. Additionally, as the mass movement of migrant workers and their children began with the starting of Shramik and special trains, we started providing relief material to ensure a safe and comfortable journey back home. We began our work on the ground, with our teams actively taking on relief work. We have distributed 13100+ water bottles, 1500+ dozen bananas, 650 ORS packets and 11700+ biscuit packets. We have successfully provided food and water to over 2900 children and 9200 adults, who boarded 12 trains from the Delhi/ NCR region. 

We need your help to keep supporting families and to ensure our projects remain open.

When the government restrictions are lifted, we know that huge numbers of vulnerable children will head to the cities as soon as they can – desperate for work and money. We have to be there for them before their situations become even more desperate.

How you can help at the Railway Stations we work at  – Dadar (Maharashtra) Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Sarairohila (Delhi).

DONATE HERE

  1. Rs 12000 – Help our rescue team find and protect 6 children
  2. Rs 6000 – Help our rescue team to find and protect 3 children
  3. Rs 2000 – Help our rescue team find and protect a lost child
  4. Rs 1800 – Help social worker to trace a child’s family and ensure they are reunified with their family or provided with long term government care homes
  5. _ (any amount) Help us protect a lost child

Thank you for your continued support.

S Navin Sellaraju,

India Country Director

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1) Railway Children India is not responsible for any individual who uses this content inappropriately for monetary or personal gains. 2) The Razor Pay donation page is a safe, authenticated and verified payment gateway for Railway children India.