saathi [hindi for companion or friend]
mumbai [bombay]

Saathi has won a prestigious award in Mumbai for its
Girl Child Repatriation Project

what does saathi do?

Volunteers meet all trains arriving at Mumbai Central Station between
6am and midnight, and remove any vulnerable children found travelling
alone to a safe place.

Temporary night shelters are provided for small groups of teenage girls.

A day centre provides non-formal education and skills training.

Income generation programmes are run in order to provide the girls
with a stipend which they are encouraged to save. This increases their
sense of security and self worth and also provides them with seed funds
for if/when they are ready to move out on their own.

Repatriation programmes are available for girls wanting to go home,
after Saathi staff have checked that it's safe and possible to do so.

Programmes are in place to begin to change police attitudes from
seeing street children and adolescents as criminals or easy prey to
seeing them as vulnerable and needing protection.

The project undertakes work with legal and political representatives
to prioritise runaway girls as a social issue.

The project produces pioneering documentation and research on the
issue of runaway girls.

Saathi also runs projects for boys and other disadvantaged communities
in Mumbai and elsewhere.