Blog 1: British Charity Keeps India’s Young On Track Jennifer Wall August 30, 2012 12:26am

Runaway children are a tragic reality all around the world. When the children decide to leave home, many are taken advantage of or turn to criminal behavior in order to survive. Drug use is also common as a way for these children to cope with what they are forced to go through after leaving home. Many of these children use transportation hubs like train stations as a way leaving home. This being the case, train stations are a common area to find runaways. In order to help these children, a charity organization, named Railway Children, was started in Britain. This organization has spread to other countries including moving recently along the train tracks of India. For the runaway children traveling on the trains going through India, instead of find trouble after reaching the stations, they find outreach workers. These workers provide the children with food and a safe place to stay. They also provide counseling and help guide the children back to their families. While there are many other charities that help runaway children, Railway Children focuses on early intervention in order to help the children avoid the troubles and problems that would come otherwise. Most of the other organizations work with children that have already faced terrible situations and conditions. By trying to prevent problems instead of dealing with the aftereffects when they occur, this organization is working to keep a bad situation from getting worse. Although we should always try to prevent anyone from going through such things that runaways encounter, it is so much more important when speaking in terms of children.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/british-charity-keeps-indias-young-on-track/2012/08/28/0c2d3c22-f12a-11e1-a612-3cfc842a6d89_story.html