Health Security of Street Children In Ethiopia: The Case Study of Kirkos Sub City of Addis Ababa
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
lobally the problem of street children has been dramatically increasing. There are as many
reasons for being on the street as there are street children. There are a large number of children
living or spending most of their day and/or night on the street. The situation for those children is
harsh. Several organizations‟ work to help these children that includes interventions towards
street children in their programs, but the amount still increases every year.
This thesis was conducted in Ethiopia‟s Kirkos sub city of Addis Ababa. One of the concerns in
the study was to provide a relatively completed and reliable picture of the situation of street
children in Kirkos sub city, focusing on the health needs and health status of street children
while they are on/off the street. The main objective of the thesis is to explore the health security
of street children in Ethiopia, Kirkos Sub city of Addis Ababa. The study utilized qualitative
technique to gather relevant information. Data are collected using a semi-structured interview,
Focus Group Discussion, Key Informant Interview and secondary sources for different
categories of respondents. The sample size for this study especially for the in depth interviews
was 17street children, 2 FGDs including 11 street children and 6 Key informants. Purposive
sampling design is chosen based on the judgment of the researcher as to who will provide the
best information to succeed for the objectives study. The research also employs primary and
secondary sources of data. In the thesis it was found that the majority (64.7%) were males while
the remaining (35.3%) were females. Most of the respondents agree that the health need and
health status of Kirkos Sub City street children is not secured.
Street children also face several challenges when they are living and/or working on the street
among them meeting their basic needs like food, and finding decent and secure sleeping places,
lack of access to services such as health are some of them. Moreover, the result showed that the
life of the street children is not secured and their health need and health status is not fulfilled by
themselves, the community and different organizations. Rather they use other coping
mechanisms while they are on/off the streets that completely hearts/insecure their health status.
Thus the problem of street children is not the case that should be left to one organization or
section of the society. Efforts should be made by government, non -governmental organizations;
community based organizations, the community and different stakeholders at large. All the
stakeholders need to work hand in hand in order to alleviate the multifaceted problems of these
children
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Keywords
Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Kirkos street children, Vulnerable, abuse