Story of 'The Railway Children' charity

ABC Tales evenings at the Wheatsheaf Pub in Rathbone Place, London, have been supporting the Railway Children charity. This non government organisation was founded in May 1995, sixteen years ago, specifically to make early intervention, offering help to newly abandoned or runaway children before they become abused, exploited or corrupted.

The charity currently partners local organisations in India, East Africa and the UK, and funds outreach workers who will go out onto the railway platforms and bus stations of the world offering support to children in the process of becoming street children, by providing immediate help in the way of food, treatment for injury and sickness, and protection in drop-in centres and emergency night shelters.

We then offer advice and counselling, looking for the child's longer term options, which may include a return home after counselling, an education programme, referral to a government or NGO run residential home or a vocational training programme. Experience says that if we can reach a child in the first month of them leaving home, we have an 80% chance of achieving one of these positive outcomes. After six months on the street, and exposure to older youth and unscrupulous adults, introduction to drugs and alcohol and anti-social behaviour to survive, this has dropped to 20%. Hence the aim of reaching children when they first arrive in the mega cities through the transport systems.

Railway Children has raised over £15 miliion since it was founded and has worked in twelve countries - India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Romania, Russia (including Siberia) and the UK. This past year it has raised almost £3 million and now concentrates in depth on three key areas - the Indian sub-continent, East Africa and the UK - and operates through 25 partner organisations in around 50 locations, and lobbies governments on longer term strategies and plans. It reaches out to around 25,000 street children a year - but regretably this is a 'drop in the ocean'. UNICEF has estimated an overall 100 million+ such children and the Indian government admits to at least 11 million.

I posted the story of the founding of the charity on ABC Tales in March this year - but, being my first posting, and being unused to the system, the format was dense and too long. I'm revising it, reformatting and providing shorter chapters, plus, over the next few days and weeks, some extracts of other chapters about some specific incidents or children.

If you want to know more, the charity's website is www.railwaychildren.org.uk.