Hippy Bogus - ness

These are pictures of an NGO called the Hermian Gmeiner Centre for Street Children, Shivajinagar, Pune. This NGO is the focal point in the lives of the 3 boys in the pictures above (Raju and Rashid in the pictures at the top of the post, and Balu in the picture below) , and 60 other children like them (32 girls, and 28 boys, 57 of which go to school and the folks at the NGO help the school children with their school work. Most of these children have parents who are HIV +ve and are out of work)

The only things that Raju, Rashid, and Balu have in common are:

1. Run away from home ten to twelve years ago (Raju from Hubli in Karnataka when he was 11, Rashid from Allahabad when he was 10, and Balu from Kolhapur 7 years ago)
2. Earn their living differently (Raju is alternatively a chain repairer, restaurant worker, and was a shoe polish boy, Rashid is a courier boy, and Balu is a shoe repair boy)

Otherwise all of the 3 boys live off the Shivajinagar railway Station in Pune, and have at some point of time in their lives been addicted to drugs (charas, ganja, etc) or inhaling and drinking shoe polish. They also unfortunately live from day to day because the concept of saving has not yet sunk in (surprisingly they earn anywhere between 150-300 rupees a day) .

This NGO has played a pivotal role in keeping them clean for the past few years. (Raju has been through a comprehensive detox program, and spoke animatedly about what he was told in detox). It also provides all children with a hot afternoon lunch, a place to bathe, and a roof to sleep under.

They help the other 57 schoolchildren here with their homework (the centre functions as a school upto standard 10. Children appearing for their 10th standard board exams are entered as external candidates through a nearby local school)

The folks running this centre have also recently introduced the 5 working adults at this centre (Raju, Rashid, Balu, and 2 others) to the concept of saving!

This centre is completely run by individual donations and ad-hoc corporate sponsorship.
(Cognizant Technologies, Pune sponsors their afternoon meals, SCESA {Sophia College Ex-Students Association} and Honeywell Technologies Pune are the other main donors)

Great work, folks at Hermian Gmeiner! Keep it up!