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Each night, after a brief struggle with other children for the most comfortable spots, Liton curls up to sleep on a railway platform in Bangladesh.
He did have a home once, in a village in the south, but when his mother died, his father remarried to a woman who treated Liton with cruelty.
“Her torture and neglect made me leave my home," says Liton sadly. "She did not like me."
Two years ago, aged eight, Liton ran away to the city of Khulna. Planning to go further from home, he waited at the station with two taka (less than US one cent) that a stranger had given him.
A staff member stopped him and asked him where he intended to go.
“I replied I did not know. He told me I was not allowed on the train, but he gave me some money to buy breakfast."
Liton began to sleep each night in the railway station. By day he scavenged streets and garbage sites, looking for scraps to eat or sell.
“It is very hard to sleep on the platform because of mosquito bites. And during winter I am desperate to find a warmer place.”
World Vision helps Liton
Since World Vision began a programme to help the children at the station, Liton has felt like he's been given a second chance for a happy life.
Liton with Sukeshini at the centre. She wishes they could do more for him |
Now, when he wakes up, he heads for the street children's centre. There he's given breakfast and picks up his schoolbooks.
World Vision has enrolled him at a local government primary school, where his Grade 2 class includes several other street children.
The centre has given him an alternative to his harsh daily routine and helped him to develop dreams for his future.
"The classes make me happy," says Liton. “I want to do better in my studies because I want to become a policeman or a doctor, to help other poor people.”
Liton continues to scavenge between classes, hoping to earn enough for an evening meal. He bathes occasionally in the river, and only owns the clothes he wears.
The centre can’t afford yet to look after the street children 24 hours a day. Instead, each night he and the other children return to the railway station they call home. Last winter Liton was given a blanket by World Vision, but it was soon stolen from him as he slept.
Sukeshini Malakar, Programme officer of Sundarban ADP, has watched Liton’s progress with keen interest, and wishes they could do more. “Continuous motivation and guidance is changing these boys," she says. "It means that love and parental care is still important to them.”
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