Another NGO working in Patna, the Bihar State Capital here in India reported that 90% of female street children disappeared from the local streets after 13 years of age. Our Staff have 15 minutes from a missing or lost girl arriving at the station to find them before someone else does. This totally new initiative aims to give female street children support and a skill they can use to earn a living by providing high quality craft training and special support to female street children.
Street Children especially girls are exceptionally vulnerable.Clearly these girls need to learn a skill to enable them to survive without falling prey to pimps and being used for prostitution. Staff at our Centre already works with the police raiding local brothels and making sure that no children under 18 years of age are being exploited but it is not enough. We need to offer a skill where these girls can earn a decent living and we need to support them during and after the programme.
This will be a "proper course" meaning it will be six months in length using highly qualified instructors and the girls will have a government approved training certificate. The toys and gift items they will able to make will provide an important independent income. . There will be a follow up support. The SIGNAL programme aims to change lives and we will help with marketing and basic education.
Every step taken to protect children helps foster an environment of more awareness of the plight of street children especially girls. working with the community is important and may encourage other right minded employers or educational institutions to offer training. This has the potential to reach out to hundreds of girls..
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
