Bombay Teen Challenge (BTC) began in 1990 when founder K. K. Devaraj, came to Mumbai with a passion to reach a young generation that was ensnared in drugs, gangs, and prostitution. Today, BTC is one of the largest non-government organizations working in the field of health and education.

 

In 2008, Devaraj was the recipient of the internationally respected ‘Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice’ presented by the Harmony Foundation. 
In 2007, he was invited to meet the UN Secretary General at the Global Leaders Forum and participated in a discussion on achieving the millennium development goals. By invitation, he testified before US Congress on behalf of victimized children. In India, Bombay Teen Challenge has made unprecedented progress in building a relationship with the local government to call for accountability and advocate change in child poverty and trafficking.

The children’s shelter, named Jeevan Jyoti (meaning life and light), is a night and day care centre located in the heart of the red light district that provides holistic care for 256 children. Through housing, nutrition, education, healthcare, tutoring and spiritual guidance, Bombay Teen Challenge offers safety, light and hope in the midst of a very present darkness.

 

Morag and I visited the Bombay Teen Challenge this month - Ashagram, (the Village of Hope), and the Jubilee Homes for orphans and children with HIV who have been rescued from the red light district.  This charity gives them a chance of a normal life and the joy and hope in their faces illustrates this every day.  Every penny will go to making a secure life possible for these young women and children who have only known hopeless despair all their lives and now have the chance of an education and a future.