Getting Lives Back On Track

“I started selling used bottles to make money for food. One day,Ansari Sheikh met me and brought me to Ashray. I found a family once again,” says Arif Sheikh,now 23. Ashray is a home for orphans,runaway and street children run by Snehsadan at Andheri. “Coming here changed my life entirely. I am now in first year of graduation. And I am also doing a two-year apprenticeship at Taj Land’s End. In two months,I hope to get a job there. Whatever I am,it is because of Snehsadan.

Arif’s is not the only story here at Amchi Kholi,a centre at a city railway station run by NGO Snehsadan. The Amchi Kholi family includes around 300 children staying at their two homes,or Ashrays,one in Borivali and the other in Andheri.

In fact,since 1962,as many as 30,000 children have taken shelter at these centre at the city’s railway stations.

The seed was sown 20 years ago in the form of a day care centre called Amchi Kholi,literally meaning Our Room,at CST station by then general manager of Central Railway Vijay Singh and Divisional Railway Manager Ramji. With assistance from the CR’s women’s Social Service Committee and Snehsadan,that effort is now a huge family tree comprising kids who,had they not found shelter,would have been lost to crime or hunger.

As it completed 20 years on April 1,Central Railway gave these children a special gift,a new structure on Platform No 18 at CST,a new Ashray with several new facilities. Rajnee Modgil,president of the WSSC,inaugurated the center in the presence of members of CR committee,several officials and Snehsadan’s authorities,alongside the Amchi Kholi family.

CR general manager Modgil donated Rs 30,000 to Snehsadan.

Nanda Rokde (28) will never forget the day she reached CST,having been annoyed with her mother for admonishing her. When she was brought to Amchi Kholi at CST,she decided not to go back to her home.

“I stayed here and studied up to Std X. And I did a course in nursing. I now work at Lilavati Hospital. From my education to my wedding,Snehsadan helped me in many ways,” says Rokde,now a mother of two.

The Central Railway Women’s Social Service Committee,run by wives of railway officials,is headed by the wife of the General Manager.

Father Placid Fonseca,director of Snehsadan,says the cooperation of the railways has been instrumental in Snehsadan attaining its objectives. “We are very thankful to the railway authorities who gave us full support,” he says.

S Mudgerikar,Chief Public Relations Officer of the Central Railway,said the main objective of this effort was to give guidance runaway children who arrive at CST. “Amchi Kholi makes arrangements to send them back to their home. The inauguration of this Ashray is a further step in that direction,” he said.

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