Street Kids in India

I met a priest at the cathedral on Sunday who invited me to visit him at his "center for boys" so today I went. Thirty boys from grade 5 to 9 where in residence at this orphanage. All are drop-outs, runaways or abandoned children. They are the street kids of the slums Watch the new movie "Slumdog Millionaire" and you'll get a sense of their lives. Parish priests bring them there and so do the police. But residence is optional. They can leave if they want to. Some stay a day or two, some two -three years. Either way, it's up them. They would just runaway again if they tried to hold them. The place was less than half full since many of the boys had left for the Pongol holiday and had decided not to return. Where are they? Who knows.

The building has two floors plus the roof. There are no beds, no desks, or chairs in any of the rooms. They each have a mat and a blanket and they sleep on the floor. Many prefer to sleep on the roof as they are more comfortable outside than in. There are traditional classes for those who want to attend and there is vocational training for those who don't want to bother anymore with "School". The Fathers of Mercy run the center and their are two priests in residence. But they haven't been able to keep up the funding so the Diocese commited to the picking up the tab for three years @ $1000/month. They have one more year to go on their promise.