A call for compassion on the rail network during mental health awareness week
Railway Children and Govia Thameslink Railway partner to raise awareness of young people’s mental health across the rail network.
Date: 11/5/2026
STRENGTHENING FAMILIES AROUND THE WORLD
Railway Children India and Tanzania teams recently swapped insights on family support, revealing different approaches to engaging families. Read about how our family reintegration work helps families repair and move forward together.
Date: 23th May 2025 | Author: Con Enzler
India team visit to Tanzania
Family case workers and staff members from Railway Children India (RCI) recently visited the Tanzania team’s projects in Mwanza and Dar Es Salaam to exchange learnings around family work.
The RCI case workers visited families supported by Railway Children Africa (RCA) case workers. They also had the chance to visit the social welfare service desks at bus terminals, which offer support to those in need.
Nida Zamani Siddique, Manager of Family Reintegration and Child Safeguarding at Railway Children India, said:
“The visit strengthened the cross-country relationship between Railway Children’s case workers.”
“It was a great opportunity for our care workers to learn directly from the case workers in Tanzania.”
Sharing learnings and best practices
Thanks to this exchange, RCI were able to learn first-hand from the family work in Tanzania, where the family work has been established for longer.
The case workers from both countries exchanges ideas on how to engage with families. For example, they discussed the benefits of using more colour and explored colour therapy as an effective tool for improving people’s physical and mental wellbeing.
“It was interesting to see that in Tanzania, elder people participate in the activities case workers conduct with a lot of zest,” Nida said.
“In Indian culture, older people don’t tend to be very involved in the activities we lead. So it was really valuable learning how we can involve older people more to enhance the interventions,” she explains.
How we support families
When we identify a child as being vulnerable, our workers assess their needs and determine how best to help them tackle the issues that may be holding them back.
Through family sessions in India and Tanzania, we help strengthen relationships between children and families, improve emotional wellbeing, and create a stable and supportive environment. This approach helps us address the root causes why the child left home and prevent them taking to the streets again.
Other sessions focus on helping parents understand the importance of keeping their children in education, or adopting healthier parenting styles and more constructive ways to discipline their children.
In the UK, our youth practitioners support young people’s families with emotional and practical support. They help young people and their relatives talk through their issues, find effective solutions to start to rebuild their relationship.
“Our work is also about providing support to parents,” explains youth practitioner Claire, “There’s a lot of stuff that comes up when we’re working with young people and it’s important for us to support Mum or Dad or the carers so they can advocate for their child and get them what they need.”
Family-based care
We always aim to reunite children with their families. But we first have to make sure it’s safe for them to go home.
While we assess their situation, we work hard to place children in alternative family-based care, so they can be in a safe and loving home and receive emotional support to help them heal from the experiences they have been through.
In Tanzania, we support the Fit Persons who care for some of the country’s most vulnerable children, like grandmothers Catherine and Rose in Mwanza.
WHAT’S THE FIT PERSONS PROGRAMME?
Sharing ideas and best practices across our teams in India, Tanzania and the UK allows us to constantly improve our approaches and help more children families heal and thrive.
Find out more
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