From streets of Chennai to stadiums of Rio de Janeiro

Usha, Silambarasan, Sneha, Hepsiba and Ashok have become pros at handling the spotlight over the last few months. The moment we ask them for a photoop, they immediately wear their Team India-Street Child Games 2016 t-shirts, followed by the medals they have won, and strike a perfect pose. And once you start talking to them about their whole experience, you realise how confident they sound, ready to take on the world. These five young people represented their country and the rights of millions of street children in India and across the world at the Street Child Games 2016. They competed with 10 countries for Olympicthemed sports and were part of a Congress for Street Children’s Rights. 

Team India was organised by Karunalaya Social Service Society and Centre for Street and Working Children in Chennai, an organisation working to protect and rehabilitate street children. “We held a sports contest in January 2016 for street kids from across the city. These five children were incredibly talented and emerged winners across categories. We decided to train them professionally and eventually facilitate their taking part in the Street Child Games 2016. It has been such a fruitful experience,” says N Paul Sunder Singh, director of Karunalaya. He accompanied the kids to Brazil for the Congress and the games and says that it has been a surreal experience watching them do so well on an international platform. 

Usha, a passionate speaker, was chosen by the Congress to be the lead speaker, representing  the street kids. She says, “I was emotional when I was chosen as the lead speaker. I prepared for it and discussed various issues faced by street kids with all those present from various countries. It was great to be able to speak about issues that are faced by all of us, irrespective of the country we belong to.” On being asked about how she had managed to communicate with children from Mozambique, Pakistan, Burundi and Britain, she smiles. “We used sign language!” She also narrates how the girls from other countries were really in awe of the kumkum she put on her forehead, and wanted to apply it too. 

Hepsiba made it big at the Street Child Games 2016, bagging three medals, including a gold medal. She lives with her mother at a homeless centre in the city. “Sports has always been an important thing for me and it gives me an option to lead my life the way I want to. I feel very happy that I have made my country proud. It only goes to prove that street children like us have talent. We just need a platform like this to prove it. I made so many friends from Pakistan, Mozambique, Egypt, Brazil and Argentina. It was fun competing with them,” she says. 

On asking about the whole experience of meeting kids from other parts of the world and interacting with them, Sneha and Ashok say, “It was a very enriching experience for us. We saw kids who were from different cultures, wore different clothes and spoke a different language. But after talking to them in whatever little English we knew and sign language, we realised our problems were the same. We connected and now can proudly say that we have friends from across the globe.”