Establishing Homelink of runaways

Several runaway children come to Mumbai in search of better life but end up on streets.

Shelter Don Bosco, Wadala, relocates such children. Homelink, an online initiative started by Don Bosco in 2007, has so far helped relocate 80 such kids.

The website linked to around 50 NGOs across the country maintains a database — name, age, photograph, background information, etc — of such children and whenever there is a match, makes arrangements to help the child return to his/her parents.

"People register on Homelink and we find the child and his/her parents. Located children are produced before the child welfare committee, which directs us to keep them for a year at the shelter. During the period a child is with us, we try to find his/her family," said Father Roger Jones, director of Shelter Don Bosco.

The website dedicated to restoration of children and help trace lost/missing kids has features such as follow-up and caring community.

Information gathered through events such as Diwali mela and monthly melas is automatically updated on it. The details are shared with NGOs and measures taken to find a match.

An integral part of the initiative is relocation of "young at risk", who include runaways, out-of-school, differently-abled, young in conflict with law, children addicted to drugs or alcohol and child victims of exploitation and abuse.

"Most of these children run away from home due to abuse, child labour, alcoholic parents and acute poverty. Children who have gone back to families belonged to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra," Jones said.

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