The apostolate for the street children was started in Ujjain by the Ruhalaya Theology Students. MST Fathers gave leadership for this venture. The brothers contacted the street chidren in their real life situations and worked for their welfare. As a result they expersed if they could have a night shelter. That is how Basera (shelter) was born.

Here is the testimony of one of the street boy.

Childhood is the right of every child including me, and I like to live it. Any child whom I meet has someone to care for, protect and to take to school, temple, market, playground and to greater vision. But I...? I am deprived of all these... abandoned, uncared and unroofed.

I am that person sitting at the bank of the pond for forty years waiting for the One who would take me to the swaying waters. I spent all my days picking up rags, often chased by men and dogs... Still dreaming of a person who would pick me up from this wretched bin of life...

Basera is the visible hand of the unseen God that took me to green pastures of immense possiblities, to the limits of the unlimited skys, and to that right pond of healing where the waters waits and moves.

Interactivities

Once we were isolated... fighting one another... addicted to drugs... and were struggling hard to survive. Now we form a large loving family understanding, helping and supporting one another. Wherever we are, we come to Basera on the 1st of every month. It is a day of celebration On that day we forget all our hardships and miseries, stress and agonies. We stay together... cook, eat, sing, dance, play and pray. We go for picnic, We have opportunities to mingle with school children, and people of different walks. We go for matches and stage performances. Now We love, are loved and find meaning in life.

Keeping in touch

We sit in solace in the shade of Basera to discuss our problems and share our experience. The troubled and the needy are given personal counselling and are helped to take new resolutions to tread new vistas of life. It is how we hold the horizon in our fists.

Transformation

I heard of Basera from my friends... I visited Basera just to know what it is... I found it a home to stay... I never liked to return to those ways I had trodden... Instead I returned to myself... To find out new paths that would lead me to accomplishments. Basera provoked me to an introspection... This is the transformation I underwent Basera is the tree where a child like me makes his nest! It is under this tree we get enlightened! It is from this stem we branch out laiden with fruits!

A note with a difference

‘Street children’ is a reality to be wiped out. They are not simply dropped on street from sky. They are created by us. Their existence is a must for a few for their personal gains. Such people make use of these children for drug peddling, smuggling, prostitution, begging, organ trade, bonded labour etc. On the other side, our negligence to understand the other as our neighbour and friend indirectly causes an increase in the number of street children. The reality of street children in fact mirrors the ugly side of our value system. Winking this fact we curse and name them putrid ones of the society. Basera, established on 3rd July 2003, is one of the expressions of Ujjain Diocese’ commitment towards human rights issues. Basera is an immediate response to the need of the times. She reaches out to children who are in need of love, care and protection: organises awareness and training programmes, provids leagal aids, health care and education facilities, connects them to thier home and relatives, guards from exploiting situations and by rehabilitating them tries to bring them to the mainstream of the society. Basera invites every man of goodwill to join hands in this attempt of establishing a better life for millions of children in India. When you are silent Basera is a sound

Fr Varghese Kunnath

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