Retrak is Stockport’s very own international charity, which has been working for the past 20 years to transform the lives of highly vulnerable children living on the streets in developing countries. Based just over the road from us in Metropolitan House,  Retrak supports children in 6 countries across East Africa and South Amercia, in the last year alone reaching 24,000 children and families.

The charity runs transitional centres which provide children living on the streets with somewhere safe to go where they can receive food, counselling, health care and catch up education whilst their families or, when this is not in the child’s best interest, foster carers can be found. In the countries where they operate, if a child becomes separated from their family they can’t always articulate where they live or find their way home. Children are then at risk of street life -Many are forced to work in dangerous child labour just to survive. Increasingly Retrak are also seeing children on the streets who have been lured by traffickers, or forced to flee modern slavery.

Girls in particular are especially vulnerable to exploitation, migrating to the city with a dream of improved educational and employment opportunities, only to face a nightmare of exploitative domestic or commercial sex work. This has to end.

We’re supporting the Work to Free campaign, which aims to raise £5,000 to support child victims of modern slavery by providing safe shelter and a real alternative to exploitative work or a life on the streets. The campaign asks you to donate just 1 hour or your wages to help a child escape the streets. To give you an idea of the difference you can make:

• £10 provides shelter for a child at a Retrak centre for a month, or would cover a two month supply of specialist food for a very sick child.
• £30 covers toiletries and sanitary supplies for 25 girls at Retrak’s Bulamu Centre for a whole month
•  £50 covers the mattresses, mosquito nets, and bedding for 25 beds at a Retrak Centre. Or could buy 50 school uniforms for children who have been reintegrated back home and are re-enrolling in school.
•  £100 would provide basic medical supplies at one of the Retrak centres for a whole year, or resources for catch up education classes for 6 months

The campaign runs until the end of August- please help us to reach the goal by donating and sharing within your networks