“ I hope you realize your good fortune” Sasi tells the children picked up from the streets every morning to spend the day in a protected environment under the Gayatri House programme for street children at Sharana.
Born in the streets, orphaned by the age of 8, at the mercy of her older siblings who had little time or inclination to provide for her, Sasi spent nearly a decade living a precarious, dangerous, exploitative, insensitive and heartrending life on the streets. At the age of 18, after resisting the sex trade proposed by those she knew and depended upon, she was rescued by kind souls and came under the umbrella of an organisation that trained her and empowered her to take charge of her life.
Sasi today is one of Sharana’s most valuable outreach workers. She knows the perils of the streets like none other. She reads in the eyes of the children in her care their stories: unsheltered, extremely vulnerable, born to destitute parents often in dangerous questionable professions.
“Where was Sharana, when I was little?” she asks in an emotional cry. Quickly regaining composure she adds, “Today I depend on no one, I am happy, especially because I help those, unlike me, who have the good fortune to be off the streets and embraced by the Gayatri House programme.”
One day she hopes to build and nurture a family of her own. Life has taught her to read accurately the intentions of the men who solicit her attention. Meanwhile, she looks back and is happy with the journey that has made her strong, confident, independent, positive and productive.
#SharanasDiary
