A plea on Facebook helped a mentally challenged 12-year-old find his family.

Social activist-turned-JDU leader Shabana Dawood managed to trace Chandan, a 12-year-old boy, and successfully handed him over to his parents. Shabana used Facebook to carry out her mission.

Chandan had somehow left his village, Kankhudia, under Palasi block in Araria, on February 8 and reached Delhi on the Mithilachal Express.

A resident of Hisar in Haryana, Anil Kumar Sharma, found him crying on the Delhi platform on February 10. The child was scared and hungry. Anil gave him food and questioned him to learn that he had come from Bihar. Anil and Shabana are Facebook friends and he intimated her immediately.

"Anil told me about the boy and I asked him to bring him to Anand Vihar railway station in Delhi," said Shabana, who is also the national general secretary of JDU's women cell. "I told him to send the boy to my house in Bhagalpur with a passenger on the Vikramshila Express."

Anil sent Chandan along with Ajay Bhagat, a passenger, on the Vikramshila Express. Bhagat, a Banka resident, was on his way to Bhagalpur and accompanied the boy on Shabana's instructions.

After Chandan reached Shabana's residence on Saturday, she uploaded his picture on Facebook with details for his family or relatives to identify and help him reach home.

A prompt response came from Tariq Anwar, Shabana's Facebook acquaintance, who claimed he knew Chandan's family. He let Chandan's father know about his missing son and the family came to collect the boy from Shabana's house on Saturday evening.

Chandan's father, Dakbehari Yadav, is a schoolteacher at Government High school, Balua Jigar, Kishanganj. His mother, Parvati Devi, was at the hospital after her condition turned serious with Chandan's disappearance.

"I am thankful to Facebook," Shabana told The Telegraph. "The happiest part was the recovery of Chandan's mother who fell seriously ill with the disappearance of her son and had to be admitted in hospital."

Shabana's husband Shamsher said his wife had also helped Bajrangi, a teenager who disappeared some five years back, find his family.