€40,000 will do a lot of good, says Edith
It was only right children exploited by paedophiles should get back some of the money made from such heinous crimes, Edith said yesterday.
Many of the street children in Calcutta who Edith helps are drawn into the world of child prostitution and a number have contracted HIV.
Marriage for them means that instead of being raped 20 times a day by strangers they will only be raped by their husband and his friends, Edith said yesterday.
Edith already knows what she will spend the €40,000 on - it’s urgently needed to build a refuge for abused children.
Mr Allen, husband of celebrity chef, Darina Allen, who pleaded guilty to possessing images of naked children, agreed to donate €40,000 to the Edith Wilkins Foundation.
“It is a huge break for us so something good will definitely come out of what is a dreadful situation for the Allen family.”
Edith first arrived in India with the Irish charity Goal nearly 20 years ago. After working on relief projects in Africa she returned to Calcutta to work with street children and has been there ever since.
The children she works with live by themselves in railway station platforms, along railway lines, under bridges and even inside sewerage pipes. In 1999 Edith, together with Maureen Forrest and Selina Daly, formed the Edith Wilkins Hope Foundation.
Edith went on to form her own foundation called Calcutta Street Children Foundation and is now working with a local group called Cosmas that is trying to stop the children coming into Calcutta by setting up centres along the railway lines.
She explained there was a lot of child trafficking between Nepal to Bombay and Nepal into Calcutta.
“What we have done is set up child centres along the line into Calcutta. The idea is we will have a halfway house and a run-to centre.”
Because so many children have contracted HIV as a result of being sexually abused the two groups also hoped to be in a position to eventually to set up an AIDS hospice for the children.
“With child trafficking we are dealing with really serious people but the government and the community are behind the project, even though they cannot offer any financial support.”
No matter where the children ended up they were almost always subjected to sexual abuse. “We had four children in the centre recently who had been sold - they were all under 11 years.”
She knew a nine-year-old boy who worked in a hotel, which was really just a wooden shack where truckers stay. He worked from 6am until 10pm but the owner allowed him come to the centre for three hours.
“He has parents but his father is blind and his mother is sick. He has two brothers and one of them was on drugs. It was the older brother who sold him to the hotel owner. Edith has just adopted two young children and has fostered 11 who have lived with her for 15 years.
“The street children I work with know that the way they are abused is not right but they can’t let themselves think about it in that way. If they did they would not survive.”
“These children who have been raped 20 times a day revert back to being babies because they feel secure.”
Edith watches the children when they are asleep to judge how they are settling in. “They start sleeping in the foetal position but as the weeks go by they start lying flat on their backs with their hands out because they know they are safe “Last weekend I could hear all the children in the house and they were laughing, playing cards and having an absolute brilliant time. They have all come on so well,” says Edith.
Anyone wishing to help the Edith Wilkins (Calcutta Street Children) Foundation Limited can lodge money to a bank account at AIB, Douglas Road Cork. The account number is 21439006 and the sort code is 93-43-48.
