Initiation into the street, challenges, means of survival and perceived strategies to prevent plights among street children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2019: A phenomenological study design

Background The life and health of street children are becoming a global concern. Push and pull factors i.e. poverty, family death, economic decline, child abuse, financial independence, and peer influence draw children into the street. The street lives by itself pushes them into sex work, and lack o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2022-08, Vol.17 (8), p.e0272411-e0272411
Main Author: Chimdessa, Ayana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to education
Child abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Children
Children & youth
Community involvement
Computer and Information Sciences
Crime
Data analysis
Data collection
Design
Economic decline
Engineering and Technology
Health risks
Health services
Homeless children
Human trafficking
Legislation
Management
Medical research
Medicine and Health Sciences
Minority & ethnic groups
Peer relationships
People and Places
Policies
Poverty
Prevention
Rape
Sex crimes
Sexual abuse
Shelters
Social conditions
Social factors
Social networks
Social organization
Social Sciences
Social service
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Summary:Background The life and health of street children are becoming a global concern. Push and pull factors i.e. poverty, family death, economic decline, child abuse, financial independence, and peer influence draw children into the street. The street lives by itself pushes them into sex work, and lack of shelter magnificent abuses, where both sexes have the same sleeping quarters. Materials and Methods A phenomenological study design was employed from January to March 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Time-Space Sampling (TSS) was used to recruit participants into the study. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and individual in-depth interview were used to collect data. Data analyzed by using framework analysis software. Results About 103 participants took part in the study. Finding shows street children are encountering widespread challenges like social network fragmentation, child trafficking, harassments, and shortage of basic needs. Furthermore, poor design of comprehensive, contextualized strategies and less political value worsening the problems. They are considered as a felon, outlaws, and having a mentality of committing a crime by both law-keeping bodies and society. This situation resulted in fewer acceptances of street children by the community, and less legal protection by law that made them more at risk for denial of social protection. Street children positively perceived strategies like Income Generating Activities (IGAs), shelter, community support, child protection, and access to education, health services, life coaching, and less extent re-integration strategies to address their problems. Conclusion The study shows street children are defenseless to harassments and denial of social protection services. Poorly designed policies, strategies targeting them, less political values, and traditional response by government has been subjugated, which made them prone to health and social problems. Therefore, finding might be beneficial to health data scientists, and policymakers; to design and implement policies, and strategic plans in addressing, and preventing their plights.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0272411