The Director warm heartedly welcomed the participants for the meeting and he introduced the institution and staff to those who were present. Mr. Francis Dodia our outreach coordinator requested the participants to introduce themselves to each other and afterwards he asked them to share their experiences with street children whenever they came across them on the railway stations or in the trains. At the start the thirty odd railway personnel who had gathered for this meeting seemed not to know what to expect but once the Director of Snehalaya explained the purpose of this meeting, all the participants warmed up with genuine interest in this topic of Child Care and Protection, such that when they were asked to share, quite a few of them spontaneously came forward to share their experience regarding these platform boys.
Mr. D.T. Barot, the station superintendent, set the ball rolling with his experiences and this was followed by Mr. Rushi Upadhyay, the CMI of Bharuch station, Mr. Malik Ismail Bapu, the Head of the Caterers Association, some caterers and RPF personnel. All of them showed deep concern for platform kids and were very keen to be of help and do whatever they could for these kids. This was something really encouraging.
After the sharing was over the Director took over with a power point presentation on Snehalaya and Child Care and Protection. In the power point Presentation the work of the institution was well explained. The staff also shared their experience with platform boys. At the end our Outreach Coordinator thanked the entire group of participants for making special time for this meeting. The participants were happy to have this meeting and to give whatever help was required to Don Bosco Snehalaya in its work with railway platform and street children. The participants were very enthusiastic, supportive and cooperative. All in all, this interface meeting seemed to be a good positive step forward in our relations with railway personnel.