A success story of networking with various stakeholders.
A mail received from Mr. Sastry (Padmashree Society). A orissa based NGO providing shelter to the missing kids and Kumari is one among them. As kumari is from AP. The NGO has tried all the ways to trace the parents, their communication included mails to Human Rights Commission, DGP – AP. at last they have tried to communicate through bulk mails. As it did not contain any clues none of them have tried to trace the kid and REDS, Kadiri has forwarded the mail to Chandra to help Kumari reach her Home.
The contents of the mail were of few clues like names of her parents (Eda swami and Terpama) village (Mustukunta & Chetampeta). As there were no perfect clues M.S.Chandra has tried to find the villages but details did not match the villages in AP, he tried all combinations and found the villages as Mushtikunta (Bonakkal Mandal)and Seetampet (Chintakani Mandal) of Khammam District.
With the permission of local largest circulated newspaper, he gathered contact details of a local reporter and enquired if there is any missing girl from the villages. The reporter took some time to visit the villages to enquire and positively responded with details of the local sub-inspector and all other details.
Kumari is a 14 year old girl from Thimmineni Plaem under the jurisdiction of Chintakani Police station. She is a little disturbed girl with special needs. Her parents are nomads and traditional beggars who go out before sunrise and seek alms playing the drums before the villagers. They reside in temporary hutments and are illiterates. Owing to poverty, they did not even have a photograph of the girl, hence could not lodge a complaint for 9 months. They have tried all the ways to find the girl, travelled all the places which the girl knows like places of relatives. They have spent around Rs.8000/- in searching the kid.
The process of tracing the kid and parents involved networking with NGOs, local print media, Police and representatives of Women & Child Welfare Department.
The parents of Kumari felt happy to see her child in a safe place and all the people including senior citizens and youth in the village appreciated the efforts of the volunteers as they did not know if the girl survived but expressed their inability to spend to travel to Orissa to get the child back and have requested the NGO to help them.
The whole process of tracing the details of the missing kid & parents and visit to confirm it took exactly 2 working days. This is an example of the power of the networking with all stakeholders to prove that a small group of likeminded individuals can help a missing kid reach her home.
Next day, M.S.Chandra met Mr.Kismat Kumar – Director, Department of Juvenile Welfare Correctional Services & Welfare of Street Children,to discuss the procedures to get the missing girl back home. The Director assured all support to help the kid reach her home.
People / organizations involved :
1. Team : M.S.Chandra, M.Subhash Chandra, Kiran Valipa Venkat, Chinmayi and Suresh
2. Shyam Sundar Reddy (Society for Solidarity and Reconstruction)
3. Arun (Eenadu)
4. Smt.Usha Rani (APO – Women and Child Welfare, Khammam Dist)
5. Md.Osman Ali (Sub-Inspector of Police – Chintakani PS)
6. Ellaiah (Ex-Sarpanch)