Street Situations Research Articles

Breaking silence: exploring motherhood and social transformation in a participatory action research with Alteñan mothers

In November 2012, a researcher, two social workers and five mothers embarked on a participatory action research (PAR) journey with the aim to develop new ideas for interventions for children and young people in street situations of the city of El Alto in Bolivia. In this article, we attend to the topic of personal and social transformation in PAR. We explore how the mothers of young people in street situations perform and negotiate their subjectivities as mothers in their everyday life; how they create (new) subjectivities in exchange and in interaction with each other during the mother project; and how the performance of their (new) subjectivities can bring social change. The mothers in our group shared stories of being silenced by social services in their everyday lives, as their motherhood is declared not good enough or as they are perceived too guilty to claim for help. It was the first time the mothers shared their stories with other mothers of their lives with their children in street situations. By noticing that they all experienced or heard of similar events that their children were subjected to in the streets, the mothers grew confident enough to talk back. Mothers talked back by denouncing injustice and by transforming doubts into questions, providing them with more knowledge. Finally, as the mothers reached out to social services, mothers’ presence, questions and stories confronted aid workers with their own flaws, and their comfortable discourse of blaming families, creating new paths towards social transformation.

Orphans of the HIV epidemic: the challenges from toddlerhood to adolescence and beyond.

This presentation focuses on the challenges and practical issues faced each day by orphans of the HIV epidemic and the holistic care that can be provided, as they continue to grow from toddlerhood to adolescence and beyond. An HIV Research Trust Scholarship enabled me to spend quality time in a sub-Saharan African province worst hit by the HIV epidemic and to interact with local experts and learn from mutual clinical experience. It was an immensely useful exercise as the clinical spectra of the diseases are very similar to ours and they have ongoing active research programs very relevant to our setting. India is arguably home to the largest number of orphans of the HIV epidemic. The responsibility of caring for orphaned children overwhelms and pushes many extended families beyond their ability to cope. Many countries are experiencing large increases in the number of families headed by women and grandparents, or even young children. These households are often unable to meet basic needs, and so the number of children living on the streets is rising. Orphaned children are disadvantaged in many devastating ways. In addition to the trauma of witnessing the sickness and death of one or both parents and perhaps siblings, they lack the necessary parental guidance through crucial life-stages of identity formation and transition into adulthood. They are more likely to suffer damage to their cognitive and emotional development and be subjected to; exploitation in terms of labour, social exclusion, extreme economic uncertainty, physical and sexual abuse, illiteracy, malnutrition and illness. Education remains a distant dream. With stigma and discrimination, they lack legal protection, lose inheritance rights, access to essential services available to other community members and professional help from doctors, teachers and lawyers. The implications for these unfortunate children are extraordinarily grave but governments, international agencies, non-governmental organizations, schools, other community groups and individuals can still alter the course of the crisis. The Committed Communities Development Trust (CCDT) is a voluntary secular Trust, reaching out to 300,000 people annually, focusing intensively on children affected and infected by HIV/AIDS, mainly orphans, child headed families, children living in street situations, brothels, institutions and children at risk of drug addiction, abuse and exploitation in Mumbai. We run several comprehensive HIV/AIDS programmes addressing issues of prevention, care, support, education, awareness, empowerment, training and research through strongly structured home-based care programs, community based programs and temporary residential shelters. The CCDT recognizes and understands the daunting challenges these children face and helps them overcome these as a team by providing comprehensive care and support, giving them an opportunity in life and enabling them to become productive citizens of tomorrow.

No place is safe: violence against and among children and youth in street situations in Uganda

This article explores street children’s exposure to and responses to violence based on data collected in 21 major towns in Uganda. Findings show that violence among Ugandan street children is endemic, perpetuated by both street children against each other and adults. Both male and female children suffer outright abuse from police, occasional strangers, and from each other. Boys were more frequently physically abused while girls were more frequently abused emotionally and sexually. The study recommends policy-oriented actions linked to addressing the variations in the vulnerability to violence among children on the basis of gender, age and other risk factors and targeting the change of attitudes and behavior among duty bearers in various settings, which result in violence against children on the street.

Outcomes for street children and youth under multidisciplinary care in a drop-in centre in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

There is little evidence to describe the feasibility and outcomes of services for the care of street children and youth in low-income countries. To describe the outcomes of a multidisciplinary case management approach delivered in a drop-in centre for street children and youth. A longitudinal study of street children and youth followed in an urban drop-in centre. Four hundred (400) street children and youth received a multidisciplinary case management therapeutic package based on the community reinforcement approach. The main outcomes were changes in psychological distress, substance abuse and social situation scores. The median follow-up time for the cohort was 18 months. There were reductions in the levels of psychological distress (p = 0.0001) and substance abuse (p ≤ 0.0001) in the cohort as well as an improvement in the social situation of street children and youth (p = 0.0001). There was a main effect of gender (p < 0.001) and a significant interaction of gender over time (p < 0.001) on improvements in levels of psychological distress. Survival analysis showed that the probability of remaining on substances at 12 months was 0.76 (95% CI: 0.69-0.81) and 0.51 (95% CI: 0.42-0.59) at 24 months. At 12 months, fewer female patients remained using substances compared to male (p < 0.01). To be most effective, programmes and strategies for children and youth in street situations in developing countries should target both their health and social needs.

Diversity of Contexts in Drug Use Among Street Adolescents

In this study we aimed to investigate through ethnographic methods the different contexts of drug use by street adolescents in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Participant observations and semistructured interviews were performed at 11 major points of adolescent concentration in the streets of the city and in 10 care institutions. The sample was composed of 17 adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age. Data showed diverse patterns of drug use distributed by geographic situation and street circumstances. Observations were grouped into three main contexts: (a) immersion: greater intensity of drug use associated with greater involvement in the street culture; (b) surface: less drug use associated with family closeness; and (c) alternative-migratory: greater involvement with drug trafficking and prostitution associated with less family closeness and street culture. The drug use patterns varied in accordance with the diversity of street situations. Therefore, the peculiarities of each context should be taken into consideration in the development of social/ health policies.

Tears, Trauma and Suicide: Everyday Violence among Street Youth in Puebla, Mexico1

Despite considerable ethnographic research with young people in street situations and a growing interest in violence, little attention has been paid to suicide. The occurrence of suicide is a dramatic event that reveals weaknesses in support systems established by governments and civil society organisations, as well as perceived failings of friends. While an interest in suicide usually considers cause, in this paper we explore effect. How does the death of a member of a tightly knit group of street youth affect others and what does the suicide tell us about their identification with death more generally? Research for the paper was part of an in‐depth study of identities among street youth in Mexico.

Urban livelihoods from children’s perspectives: protecting and promoting assets on the streets of Dhaka

This paper investigates what children in street situations in Dhaka value as important, and how they protect and promote their livelihoods when living on the street. It argues that, despite the common belief held by many people in mainstream society, in the realm of policy and in NGOs, these children are not destitute. They have dynamic portfolios of assets and show complex coping strategies generally managed in a group. When considering policy implications, this paper argues that to be effective, sustainable and respectful, intervention has to abandon the focus on children’s deprivations often fostered by a strict interpretation of children’s rights. On the contrary, a more systematic investigation of children’s initiatives to improve their lives when on the street should guide interventions on how to help them strengthen their assets, rather than to create substitutes for them.

The influence of instructional variables on the effectiveness of traffic education†

Experiments in teaching children safe traffic behavior vary widely in objectives, methods, design and subjects. To induce generalisation of the experimental findings a model has been developed in which the factors influencing the effectiveness of the traffic training can be identified. Within the framework of this model the experimental data concerning the instructional variables are discussed in terms of instructional situations, methods and audio-visual media. Instructional stiuations may be divided in real traffic situations, real street situations without traffic, semi-real situations, simulated street situations and the classroom. The real traffic situation appears to be the most suitable for traffic training, whereas classroom training may be effective if certain methods are used in conjunction with audiovisual aids. The methods used in traffic training may be described as theoretical instruction, demonstrations, practical training and behavior modification. There is littel evidence that theoretical instruction is effective in influencing road safety behavior. The best results seem to be obtained from demonstrations and behavior modification. Media play an increasingly important role in traffic training, the studies mainly focus on table-top models, slides, film/video and print material. The most promising results are found in experiments using film or video, especially when these films are based on demonstrations following imitation-learning principles. Finally, some conclusions are drawn concerning further research and the practical implementation of the findings.