Traveling India by train few weeks ago, an Australian entrepreneur and aviator Dick Smith passed a homeless family living under a bridge in Vadodara, Gujarat. He then spotted an eight-year-old girl wearing nothing but a pink bracelet on her left wrist and playing near the railway tracks under the Shastri Bridge. He immediately snapped some pictures of her on his iPhone and also noted the GPS position. What he did next changed the life of the girl with a pink bracelet.

After he left India, Smith handed over the photograph to an Australian couple (Jess and Chris Bray) on a tour of India for wildlife photography and asked if they would be interested in flying all the way to India, locating the girl & her family and ensuring that they have a better accommodation, secure the girl an education, buy them life’s basics and open her a bank account wherein Dick Smith could regularly deposit money – all in three days.

Chris Bray and Jess not only took up the challenge but managed to complete it in just three days and uploaded a photo essay documenting their journey on the Facebook page. Take a look.

The couple flew into Vadodara on December 15 and started their quest to find one girl out of a country of 1.25 billion. Their only aid in this quest was that one photograph. Chris writes, ‘We couldn’t even see anyone’s face! In a country of 1.25 billion people, and no way of knowing if they’d still be there or not, trying to find let alone attempt to help this family was going to be quite the adventure.’

They flew to India — their adventure will begin in Vadodara.

The two landed in India, reached Vadodara and took a rickshaw to the hotel on Day 1.

The couple made their way to Shashtri bridge to the exact location as in Smith’s photo. But, it wasn’t as easy as they thought due to the language barrier and the fact that they couldn’t recognize any families present under the bridge at the time.

On Day 2, Chris writes that the two went to the bridge and found many families but it was hard for them to communicate and they couldn’t recognise anyone from the photo.

They walked into a bank where they knew the manager and were introduced to Dr. Chellani, who would help them out.

Then they went asking around if anyone knew the girl or her family.

They then found this man in red T-shirt with the plastic leg who happened to be in the original photo clicked by Smith.

They started passing the photo around, and this woman recognised the girl in the pink bracelet. She directed them to the girl’s mother, who called for her daughter — she was away playing.

They found the girl! Her name was Divya.

Chris writes, ‘With all eyes on her, and these 2 weird foreigners and two men in suits here to see her, the young girl Divya thought she must have been in trouble, and was initially very shy and a little upset.’

Chris and Jess explained the episode to the girl and her family.

As it turns out, the family has been living under the bridge for 12 years and it was there that Divya was born too. Her father was a plasterer who would earn $4-$6 a day, which was not enough to afford even a slum house and hence they made the tracks their home. Chris writes, ‘We decided it was best to wait until the dad came home from work to discuss with the whole family to see if there was a way we could help. Dr. Chellani told them to meet at the Bank that afternoon. We even had to pre-warn the security guard to actually let them in.’

On the afternoon of Day 2, the whole family filed shyly into the bank manager’s office and sat down. Talking about the father Chris writes,”We met the dad for the first time, and mercifully it turned out that he doesn’t drink or smoke (The whole state of Gujarat is a ‘dry state’ and alcohol is illegal, but there is, of course, a thriving black market). We believed them too, he certainly presented better than many of the other red-eyed, hungover men under the bridge – he seems like a genuine, hard working man, loves his family, and just struggling to get ahead. Thankfully it seems they weren’t under the bridge because he has some hardcore addiction or something – they seem like the perfect family not only in need of some assistance but able and willing to be helped.”

Chris and Jess then showed the family a photograph of Dick Smith and his wife and told them how he had seen the girl while passing through and sent them to find out if there was any way he could help the family if they wanted.

The next morning, they opened a bank account for the girl which could be accessed by Divya and her mother and where Smith could deposit money every month, which would then be automatically transferred to the rental account etc.

However they didn’t even have the most basic form of ID that identified them even as an Indian citizen, no fixed address, or anything. Amazingly, though, Mr. Ratan found a way to help, opening them what’s called a ‘Smile’ bank account, a new initiative for people with no ID.

Divya and her mother get their passport photos taken for the bank form.

Divya gets a bank account. A formal contract was linked to the account, specifying what the funds could be used for: rent and education, for instance. The contract also mentioned that the funds would be provided for a minimum of 2 years, after which the contract would be reviewed (although the plan is for it to be more than 10 years). As an incentive to Divya’s parents to educate her, a clause was added specifying that the funds would be stopped if Divya stopped attending school. To start things off, they deposited enough rent money for 3 months into the bank account.

After the formalities were done, Jess and Chris took the family out for shopping and bought clothes, bags and stationery for Divya and work tools for her father, Naresh.

The two ended the journey by visiting her school, which she now promised to attend every day.

After their lovely goodwill adventure, Chris and Pip head back to the airport.

What a wonderful Christmas story! Divya, all dressed up in her new clothes, holding up a photo of Dick and Pip. Thanks to them and Dick Smith.

To view the original photo-essay, click here. Image credit: Facebook/Chris Bray