=============================== Sophia and Asha Saathi, Mumbai =============================== Sophia: We work mainly in Bombay Central station. We identify and reach out to the run away girls, and build up a relationship with them. [Our scope is] Any girl up to 21 years of age and who has runaway from home on her own. Girls run away for a variety of reasons - poverty, some trafficked, abuse at home, and love affairs. What is their future? Their literacy level is low and they come from the interior regions. In this situation, there are limited options for these girls. There are two-three like stitching that last for 6 months, but what after 6 months? It is not complete solution. When started working at Central station, we realized that we need to work with all stake holders - railway police, TCs, porters, and children living in the station. The girls first come in contact with these groups, and through these groups they reach Saathi. We ran sensitization programs with positive and negative results. Many times when we approached the police, we were told that we adding to their work/load. We had the senstitization programs for the police. The police gave us permission to setup a crisis cell at the local police station where we have space. Any girl or boy who comes in contact with the police, we get referred. It is like a counseling center. For the child, we have a day-care center. At this day care center there is a NFE center. Because the levels of literacy are low and there is not required documentation, we cannot put them through the formal school. There is a counseling center - for groups as well as individuals. We have an income generation activities. The main focus is not income but to keep them occupied and keep them at a stable and comfortable place. When the girl takes the decision to leave home, she goes through a traumatic experience. Further the travel experience is difficult. We want to them feel secure and open up to the group by sharing with others. In out 6 years experience, we developed certain strengths. Our outreach as a strategy is a strong point. It really helped us get in touch with the girls. We developed our own counseling methodology. Counseling is another strength. Building relationship with the girls over long time is important and key to understanding her problems. It is not necessary that only professional counselors should be involved. Our plans: Our day care center will be expanded and strengthened. We plan to take another look at all activities to see which ones appeal most to the girls and which ones need more work. We would like to work on vocational training, job placement and putting them in a stable shelter. We provide temporary shelter. Three organizations CCDT, Prerana, and YWCA have a network and they provide long term shelter facilities for the girls. We get cases of mentally unstable girls. We have difficult in such cases. For 18+ years old girls, there are relatively few facilities in Bombay. We are seeing what we can provide to them. We are documenting our experience so that our work can be used by other organizations. Ashis: Are you associated with Child Line. Sophia: We are part of Child Line project, and cases of 18+ years old girls are referred to us. Chandravel: You said that the six months training is not sufficient. What do you suggest as a solution? Sophia: We are also looking and we do not yet have answers. We have had a variety of cases. The needs of girls vary. Any training does not necessarily translate into a stable job or source of income. Manavade: We have had some experience. We have formed a training association, and from Vimochana we contribute to a revolving fund to the tune of about Rs. 20K every year. They can take up financial help before they approach the bankers. They can first start up. We provide temporary shelter for that purpose. Ashis: Kolkata has facilities for training. For example CYSEC and Karmakutir which you can visit. Another thing we have experimented with is helping make greeting cards. It is easy to adapt and it sells a lot in the city. You can contact them. Sridhar: You had mentioned that parents of run away children can contact Saathi to know about their whereabouts. You also mentioned that children run away because of abuse at home. How do you ensure that the children do not go back to the same situation? Sophia: If the girl does not want to go back, we do not send her. If she comes for relatively minor reasons or gets trafficked, we send such girls back. We send her with escort. We contact the local NGO with all the information and ask them to follow up. We give some self-addressed post cards which they can use to contact us. If she cannot write, we teach them how to convey the message through symbols and signs. So far we have repatriated 98 cases, and we are analyzing the result to understand what needs more work. We are involving an organization, Statistica, and we plan to send volunteers to visit all 98 cases. Atleast we will know how successful our efforts are. Hansa: I had visited Saathi. When they followup on the repatriation, the neighbors raise questions as to why are people coming to us to ask for information. They are difficult questions and need to be handled delicately. Sometimes they can network with other NGOs but this is an issue that everybody needs to be aware of.