Volunteers from a charity have spoken of the plight of street children in Bangladesh.

Moheen Uddin from Haslingden represented the northern chapter of the 'Muslim Charity'. 

This trip was self-funded by the volunteers from across the UK.

He said, "I wanted to see for myself the plight of these children and the reality on the ground. I was truly dumbfounded and lost for words.

"Some children are kidnapped from the rural parts of Bangladesh to serve as sex slaves fueled by foreign sex tourism while others are sold into bonded slavery or simply abandoned by their parents on trains and ferries due to poverty."

Dhaka hosts more than 500,000 street children alone, most of which live on the pavements, railways platforms or under bridges. 

Moheen added, "There is a constant fear of violence and children are forced to do unspeakable things for money.

"Children who are forced into the sex trade sometimes do not even understand what they are doing. 

"We met a young girl who was only 12 when she was rescued. She was 3 months pregnant and didn’t even know.’

In the last year they have rescued over 1,000 children from the streets. 

They have outreach workers out each day building relationships with children and persuading them to come to the shelter. 

The offer of shelter, food and education is met with suspicion as most of the gangs use the same tactic to traffic and kidnap children. 

The charity has also opened an informal school called ‘school under the sky’ on the ferry terminal where most of the children ply their trade.

It’s there they receive education and medical attention. Most of the children suffer from skin diseases because they swim in the black waters of the Buriganaga River which runs through Dhaka.

But the school also enables the volunteers to keep track of children who they have not yet rescued and at least give them advice and guidance in the meantime.

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Once rescued the children are taken to a shelter where they receive psycho social treatment and slowly they open up with their stories. 

The primary objective for the project is to reunite children with their families. But this only done if the situation is safe and done so under guidance of the police and other government agencies. 

Muslim charity has reunited over 200 children with their families over the last two years.

Moheen and the team managed to rescue a child on their first day scouring the railway tracks of Dhaka. 

It’s there that they met Ridoy a young boy of ten. With the supervision of the charity they registered him at the local police station and took him to the shelter.  

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He said, "It was amazing to see him the following week just playing with his friend and just being a child again not having to worry about food or his safety.

"With the amount of information from Ridoy the volunteers managed to locate his family and reunite them the following week after all the due diligence had taken place. 

"This trip was a life changing moment for me and especially saving one child from the evils of the street was so inspiring. 

"I have committed to work with this project long term and have personally committed to save as many children as I can for the rest of my life."

To find out more about the charity please see:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Moheen-Uddin