Salaam Baalak Trust's photostream

Salaam Baalak Trust is an Indian NGO which was set up to help street and working children in and around New Delhi Railway Station. The Trust was set up after Mira Nair's powerful film Salaam Bombay, which used real street children in its cast. Two founding Trustees, including Mrs Nair's mother, made impromptu attempts to help the children living at the station but soon realised that much more was needed than they could do alone.

About 50 kids still arrive at the station on a typical day. Most of them are runaways who are escaping from poverty or violence at home, but sometimes they have just become lost from their families, or orphaned. They may seek freedom, but often face a life dodging between gang leaders and the hard end of a policeman's baton.

SBT strives to give some kind of childhood back to these kids, as well as a chance of a better future. It has grown from a contact point which originally gave some daily food and healthcare to about 25 street children to have four full-time shelter homes and six other contact or outreach points, plus a mobile school. In one way or another it now helps about 4,000 children a year.

Here are photos and stories of, and in some cases by, the kids. Photos and comments are from volunteers with SBT; for more information please see their official website at www.salaambaalaktrust.com