Causes and Consequences of Streetism among Street Children in Harar City, Ethiopia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the life of Harar City street children. In view of that, the following research questions were forwarded; what are the major causes that make children leave their homes for the streets? Do street children use psychoactive substances? What type of psychoactive substance do street children use? Based on these basic questions, descriptive survey design including quantitative and qualitative data gathering approaches were employed. Questionnaires and interviews were thus used to solicit information from 57 street children. The data collected through questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation and frequency whereas the data gathered through interview were analyzed through narration. As the Study revealed, the major causes which forced children to runaway are ranging from escaping abusive parental punishment followed by poverty, hate of step parents to parental alcoholic behavior. Benzene sniffing, smoking, chewing chat, use of plastic are some of the substance abuse street children have commonly used. Even some of them also reported as if they have already begun using marijuana and hashish pretending to stand with hunger and cold. The research also distinguished as there are two types of street children. These categories include the street children who have completely lost touch with their families and relatives and entirely live on the streets and street children who have contact with their families. The study recommends how to properly address street children's socio-economic and psychological problems. For further studies, it is also recommended that research should be undertaken to explore the role of streetism in psychological wellbeing of street children.

Street Children in Nepal: Causes and Health Status

“…The study found that the 10-years civil war and the 2015's earthquake destructed homes, killed and displaced thousands of families that ultimately increased the number of orphans and homeless children. Endris & Sitota (2019) argued that freedom and natural disaster work as other causes. They also explained that children often want to free from each time and entire home network UNICEF (1994) stated that the attraction of street life is increased by viewing other child's activities: playing, dancing, and enjoying at the place of the street.…”

The Assessment of Causes, Levels, and Psycho-Social Impacts of Street Life in Dessie

“…Intervention and corrective measures were not taken by the government as well as other non-governmental organizations. Researches also support it for example (10) says that the number of children on the street is increasing and the children are vulnerable to various problems from time to time.…”

“…These reasons are family violence, abuse, parental alcoholism, poverty, and parental mortality due to HIV and AIDS (9). In developing countries, many children are left alone on account of losing their parents for sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV ADIS, famine, conflict, war, and so forth which finally end up children's life in the streets (10).…”

Influence of Parents, Peers and the Public on the Behavior of Street Children in Khartoum, Sudan

“…At the first level, termed microsystems, is the interaction of a street child with people who have the strongest influence on his or her development, such as parents and siblings. In the case of Khartoum's street children, the push factor for a child's decision to be on the street is mainly economic hardship and poverty, relationship problems with stepparent and violence in the household (Kudrati, Plummer & Yousif, 2008;Abdelmoneium, 2017;Endris & Sitota, 2019). Ansell (2016) discovers that to escape from troubles at home, children moved to the streets and the aftermath of living on the streets intensifies their incompetence to ensure better livelihoods.…”