Rotary Club of Shrewsbury GUEST SPEAKER – David Maidment
David Maidment with President Pat At our Rotary Club of Shrewsbury luncheon meeting on 3 May 2017 our speaker was David Maidment from Nantwich, founder of the charity, Railway Children. A railway worker for 35 years, David spent time in India in the late 80s where he had first encountered a young girl begging at a Bombay train station and who, when she didn’t receive any money, had proceeded to whip herself. He found out she was one of about 10,000 street children being exploited to obtain cash from gullible tourists. As no organisation was working to protect so many such children at risk, David set up Railway Children in 1995 and £5m/year is raised for work in India, East Africa and the UK, where Manchester Piccadilly has become a hotspot. In India children congregate at stations and scavenge for anything that might make them a meagre meal. Dealers exploit them to deliver drugs making payment in hard drugs which results in addiction. Even police used to be abusers but now help Railway Children which offers education - up to A-levels and Uni, healthcare, accommodation and importantly entertainment. The situation in India has improved, and the government is at last providing financial support, but in the UK it has worsened. David said 60% of runaway children are from children’s homes. Railway Children has helped launch the helpline ‘Get Connected’ in conjunction with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, a free service for under-25s. Summary report by Rotarian Alan Wilding