INCOME POVERTY AND CHILD STREETISM IN DODOMA AND DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA

Abstract

Tanzania has been implementing several initiatives to address the challenge of street children in the country. Despite such efforts, the child streetism has become the daily reality and has shown the sign of increasing. This article explores the influence of income poverty on child streetism in urban Tanzania. Specifically, the article focused on analysing the live experiences of street children; and describing the influence of income poverty on streetism of children. The article adopted the descriptive cross-sectional design and involved a total of 56 informants who were purposively selected while the snowballing sampling technique was used in accessing street children. Semi-structured interview, documentary review and observation method were used to collect data. Through thematic and content data analysis techniques this article revealed that street children experienced difficulties in getting their basic needs and did not easily access health services when they fell sick. Further, child streetism has been largely influenced by income poverty. Hence, the study recommends that; develop a formal and functional support system to facilitate children on the street to access the educational services. Regarding coping strategies as an emerged issue, street children engaged into begging, unsafe sex and petty income-generating activities such as car wash and bottle collection. They also used self-medication to treat themselves when they fell sick or being left at the hospital buildings or on the street by their fellow street children when the condition got worse. Additionally, they did not have any coping strategy to enroll themselves into the school.