She had always worked with them, clicking away on her Nikon. But after a decade of capturing impoverished street children on camera, freelance photographer Shikha Khanna, 27, felt she had to work for them.

Khanna decided to teach the children basic life skills—through simple verses, illustrated by her photographs. “I wanted to help street kids by getting them off begging and drugs. These kids need to be able to think for themselves so they can differentiate between right and wrong. Poetry and photography can teach them to do that,” says Khanna, who has, in the past, convinced people to sponsor children’s education through her photographs.

The photographer has tied up with Delhi Poetree, an association of poets who have written educative poems for children on everyday subjects ranging from brushing one’s teeth and taking a bath to the importance of the environment, the Indian Constitution and the national flag. One

of the verses goes: “Pani sabun banayen jhaag/ kitanuo mein lagayen aag/ bimari chillaye ‘Police ayee, bhaag! bhaag!’ ” Khanna is working on capturing images to complement and illustrate the verses. “Children respond better to visual material than words,” she says.

The project, called Footpathshaala, will be flagged off—hopefully in a month’s time—with a pilot plan for 20 children. The idea is to educate them through an on-road campaign—with vans supplying shampoo and toothpaste and a water tanker for clean water—where volunteers from Delhi Poetree will read out the poems and Khanna will illustrate them with her photographs. “These 20 children will spread the message of cleanliness and personal hygiene among their friends and other children. We want to arm them with skills they need to be independent,” she says.

She is busy identifying street children to register for the programme—not an easy task, she admits, since they tend to be wary of people wielding a camera. “One needs to spend time with them and build trust,” explains Khanna, who has identified a family with eight children who sell newspapers at the Lodhi Road traffic signal. She is now working with them and seeking their involvement in the project.