Fifteen year old Nepali boy Ashish ran away from home in 2015, travelling with a neighbour to find work and a better life in India. He travelled to Haryana state and worked in a food cart making chow mein and other snacks. But it turned out that his companion was an alcoholic who beat him often. So after three months Ashish ran away again, this time to Mumbai where the police picked him up and placed him in a children’s home where any attempt at escape would be punished with beating. Ultimately in early 2016 he was transferred to another home at Muzaffarpur in Bihar, north India. From there he called his parents and asked them to come and free him. His father travelled to the home three times but on each occasion was turned away because release paperwork was not in order. Finally he went to Nepal’s Central Child Welfare Board to ask for help and the Board referred him to ChoraChori-Nepal. Last week Shailaja CM and Yogesh Dhami of the ChoraChori child rescue team journeyed with Ashish’s father to Bihar and this time there were no objections. Click on the image above to see the film of the release.
Ashish is very happy to be back home and says that he will never run away again. He realises now that his best chance of having a better life will come through a return to his studies. We’ll continue to support him all we can.
