THE DAY that former Shannon-based Aer Lingus worker, Maureen Forrest, visited the Limerick Post office, a text came through for her from the Hope Foundation base in India to say that her team had picked up a week-old baby girl, who had been found abandoned on the street. “That’s a relatively common occurrence,” she told the Limerick Post.
“For a lot of very poor parents, children are almost commodities to be sold and trafficked for the sex trade or child labour.
For some young mothers who are just 14 or 15 years of age and who can’t cope or even feed themselves, they have no choice but to abandon them”.
Maureen is the founder and director of the Hope Foundation, which rescues street children and helps poor families.
Over 250,000 children are forced to exist on the streets of Kolkata (Calcutta). Around five million people live in horrific conditions in slums. They do not have clean water, children are often hungry and diahorrea and skin diseases are common.
To survive, children scavenge in rubbish dumps to find scraps to sell or beg on the streets. Most are not in school and have poor health. Many children are abandoned and are at high risk of abuse, exploitation and child trafficking.
The Foundation works to change these children’s lives and it funds and supports projects in health, nutrition, child protection and education.
Since its foundation in 1999, Hope has put 30,000 children through school and many through university or into training programmes where they can earn a living.
Maureen was in the city because she and Limerick volunteer, Lorretto Kennedy, wanted to thank the people, schools and businesses of Limerick for their support for the ‘One Bar, One Day, One Child’, appeal, in which people were asked to buy a chocolate bar for €2.
“€2 is the cost of keeping a child alive for a day in India,” Maureen said. “I just want to say a really big thanks to everyone. We’ve got such fantastic support from Limerick over the years and we would as ask that even in these hard times, people might give a thought to those who are so much worse off than themselves”.
JP O’Sullivan, programs manager Hope Foundation, Loretto Kennedy, Limerick Representative of Hope Foundation, Johnny Ryan, Limerick Post and Maureen Forrest, CEO and Founder of Hope Foundation pictured outside the Limerick Post Offices, Henry Street, Limerick.
