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Unfamiliar Faces
I want to dedicate this work to the children of the photos that I have never seen. I hope for them that they have found a better life.
The Victoria Terminus Station is the last stop of Mumbai railway line. Crowded on any hour of the day in any day of the week with people going to or coming from the city, this railway station is for some much more than a transit point. Meeting place and shelter, the VT has become a real second home for runaway and street children. Those children, ranging in age from 5 to 13, share in common the same past life story as well as the use of glue (glue sniffing) which they inhale to fight off hunger and memories. Unless a providential external help will be given to them, the next step for those children, usually around the age of 10 or 12, will be heroin. Drugs, HIV, crime, associated violence and poverty shape the dangerous and vulnerable position of Mumbai’s estimated 100 000 runaway or abandoned children.
The Victoria Terminus Station is the last stop of Mumbai railway line. Crowded on any hour of the day in any day of the week with people going to or coming from the city, this railway station is for some much more than a transit point. Meeting place and shelter, the VT has become a real second home for runaway and street children. Those children, ranging in age from 5 to 13, share in common the same past life story as well as the use of glue (glue sniffing) which they inhale to fight off hunger and memories. Unless a providential external help will be given to them, the next step for those children, usually around the age of 10 or 12, will be heroin. Drugs, HIV, crime, associated violence and poverty shape the dangerous and vulnerable position of Mumbai’s estimated 100 000 runaway or abandoned children.
