HYDERABAD: Six months ago, Munirul alias Monu (6), a resident of Daikor Road, Mumbai, endured the suffering of being away from home for over two months. He was lured by an older boy on the pretext of taking him to watch a movie shooting.

A small fight near home in Chintagunta, Chittoor district, saw Rajasekhar (16) leaving his parents and taking a bus out of town roughly five years ago.

Unable to bear the allegation that he stole Rs. 500, he found while sweeping his uncle's house, Kumaraswamy (12) left native Yanampalli, in Nizamabad and spent a year in Nizamabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Tiruvananthapuram.

These are just three boys of a total of seven youngsters who were re-united with their parents thanks to the persistent efforts by a band of dedicated people in the State Capital. In many cases, it was volunteer-spotters of Childline, who spend time around bus and railway stations, who first helped put them in the Government Children's Home for Boys, Saidabad.

A.V. Roopa Ramesh, Project Officer, and Eranna Koti of SATHI (Society for Assistance to Children in Difficult Situations), Pradnya and Madhurima of Satyam Foundation, Krishnamurthy, Superintendent, Vasundara Devi, Deputy Superintendent, and Manik Reddy from the Children's Home, were involved in the happy re-union.

Tracking each boys' parents and background information was a laborious process. The team had to develop rapport with them, spending weeks to make them talk freely. For example, using sign language, they deduced that Moni was a Muslim and, from a description of his surroundings, they first thought he was from Bangladesh or Kolkata, before zeroing in on Mumbai.

"It took a lot of logistics but, with team effort, we managed to track downmost of the parents," said Ms. Roopa.

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