Jessica lives on the street. Her world is defined by drink and drugs. She knows no other life

"I thought about running away every day. When I finally did, I just wandered around the streets. I was terrified and just kept moving. My first night I slept behind the shops. I kept expecting someone to ask why I was out alone, but no-one even noticed.

Cassie was the first person to talk to me. She said she'd lived on the streets and she'd show me how to survive. She taught me how to beg. It was Cassie who first gave me drugs. At the time, they helped me feel better. Then I met Mark. He said he'd look after me but really he just wanted me to sell drugs for him. I hated it, but I had to survive.

At night we'd meet up with other people and Mark would give me drugs. I didn't know what was happening to me and the drugs meant I didn't care. Then Mark said I owed him. I thought I had nothing to give him, but it turned out I did. I remember trying to stop myself from being sick, walking towards that door, but I had no other choice. The only thing I had left to sell was myself."

"My first night I slept behind the shops. I kept expecting someone to ask why I was out alone, but no-one even noticed. "

We fight for children living on the street

Railway Children fight for vulnerable children who live alone and at risk on the streets, where they suffer abuse and exploitation.

They run away or are forced to leave homes where they suffer poverty, violence, abuse and neglect. They find themselves living on the streets because there is nowhere else to go and nobody left to turn to. Every day we fight to change their story. We race to reach children as soon as they arrive on the streets and intervene before an abuser can. Our pioneering work enables us to get to street children before the streets get to them.