In their recent visit to Kuala Lumpur, Mongolian former street children shared tales of their sad past before they were rescued from the streets and rehabilitated through music.

Living on the streets is incredibly tough for adults, worse still for children. Abandoned, these children suffered from maltreatment and had to resort to theft in order to survive. Some sought shelter at railway buildings and on the busy streets of Ulan Bator, while others lived underground, beneath the roads where pipes carry hot steam to heat the city’s buildings.

In this Star2.com Exclusive, a girl from the Blue Sky Choir talks about how she had to steal so that she and her sister would not starve. In tears, she relates how she was caught by the police for stealing bread and sent to a welfare home, and later to the Lighthouse Centre, a home and drop-in safe-house for street children in Ulan Bator.

Children of the Blue Sky Choir was established in 2004 under World Vision Mongolia, which also initiated the Lighthouse Centre, aimed at rescuing street children from a life of abuse and poverty.