Personal Stories

Kajal, India

In the Mumbai slum where Kajal lives, open sewers flood during the monsoon and rotting rubbish mountains grow ever bigger. But Kajal is still full of optimism for her future.

She recently became an assistant peer leader with a charity called Magic Bus, which is funded by Comic Relief. She works with slum children aged seven to nine, teaching them football, and helping them understand the importance of going to school, as well as good hygiene, respect and discipline.

21 million people live in Mumbai and more than half live in slums which are desperately overcrowded. In this intensely packed and unsanitary environment, only 1 in every 1,000 people has access to a toilet, so disease is rife.

Most slum children don’t go to school beyond the age of 10 and they end up becoming child labourers just to earn enough money to stay alive.

Magic Bus reaches out to these youngsters and their families and shows them the value of getting an education. Their parents are encouraged to send them to school and make sure that they study hard. Project workers show them that a good education can lead to well paid work, which in turn will help the whole family financially.

Thanks to this project, thousands of slum children are now growing up with the chance of a much brighter future.