Street Survey 2010

8/4/2019 Street Survey 2010

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CHILD RESTORATI0N OUTREACH-LIRA

BASELINE SURVEY RESEARCH REPORT ON STREETCHILDREN IN LIRA MUNICIPALITY, LIRA DISTRICT.

January 2010

CONDUCTED AND PRESENTED BY:

GOODWILL CONSULTANCY,

P.O BOX 610, LIRA.

E-MAIL: [email protected]

Tel: 0782338286/ 0782627005

AN ABRIDGED SURVEY RESEARCH REPORT ON THE STATUS OF STREET

CHILDREN IN LIRA MUNICIPALITY, LIRA TOWN TO ENABLE CHILD

RESTORATION OUTREACH IMPROVE THE LIVES OF STREET CHILDREN.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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INTRODUCTION

This study was conducted at the request of child Restoration Outreach lira. Since the

former is the only civil society organization with a vision of a society where former street

children are living a life as originally intended by God it means that all street children

living in lira municipality, lira District should have gone through a rough life. Due to

limited information and resources on street children initiatives, it is assumed that street

children thrive a fair life.

STATEMENTOFTHEPROBLEM

Child Restoration Outreach-Lira has been at the fore front in initiating and implementingpolicies aimed at minimizing the negative impact of street children in Lira Municipality,

Lira district. However the extent to which their services can be comprehensively

delivered to benefit street children had not been firmly established. This warranted an

investigation into the lives of street children in Lira municipality where their outreach

program targets. With an increasing number of street children in urban areas with orphans

devoid of a structured and supervised environment, where most children thrive, Child

Restoration Outreach Lira therefore requested that the study be carried out.

PURPOSEOFTHESTUDY

The research aimed at finding out the situation of street children and if their needs can be

used to provide services which enhance their living standard as originally intended by

God.

OBJECTIVESOFTHESTUDY

The objectives of the study were:

1. To examine the age and gender of a street child and the importance of identifying

street girls in lira municipality, lira district.

2. To identify the causes of street children in Lira Municipality, Lira District


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3. To examine the needs of street children in Lira Municipality, Lira District.

4. To establish the problems street girls and boys face in lira Municipality, lira

district

5. To examine how street children survive in Lira Municipality, Lira District.

RESEARCHQUESTIONS

The study was guided by the following research questions:

1. What are ages and gender of street children and the importance of identifying

street girls in Lira Municipality, Lira District?

2. What are the causes of street children in lira municipality, Lira District?

3. What are the needs of street children in Lira Municipality, Lira district?

4. What are the problems street girls and boys face in lira municipality, Lira district?

5. How do street children survive in Lira Municipality, Lira District?

SCOPEOFTHESTUDY

The study was limited to those areas which touches the lives of street boys and girls.

These include the number of street girls and boys and their ages, causes of street children

related to the child or family, the local community and the general society; the general

felt needs and the positive and negative attributes of their activities; problems faced by

street girls and boys, mode of survival as well as their major areas of concentration.

The study covered Lira municipality, Lira District.

METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN:

A survey research design and documentary analysis were used in this study to give a

wide coverage.


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SAMPLING:

Ten District officials, five from the community Development services and five welfare

staff in the police unit 5 Religious leaders, 5 local authorities, 5 staff working in CivilSociety Organization on children welfare, 15 community members and 10 street children

were randomly selected. All together 45 respondents participated in the study.

INSTRUMENTS

The major instruments used were the questionnaires and the interview guide. A study

survey guide on street children and head counts by the joint staff from Child Restoration

Outreach Lira police and the firm were used. The related literature on the orphans and

the vulnerable children were also used in the study.

DATACOLLECTION:

The respondents raw data were coded using information got from the respondents

questionnaires and the interview guide to examine the age and gender of street children

and identify the street girls in the community. The researchers studied the causes of the

street girls and boys and addressed their general and felt needs. The District officials,

staff in the civil society Organization working for the welfare of the children as well as

the local authorities and religious and learned community members filled in the

questionnaires to find out the general life of street children and how they survived.

DATAANALYSIS:

The data obtained from the respondents was summarized, computed and tabulated. The

data provided by the majority respondent was qualitatively analyzed.

FINDINGS

1. AGEANDGENDEROFSTREETCHILDRENANDTHEIMPORTANCEOFIDENTIFYINGSTREETGIRLSIN

LIRAMUNICIPALITY.


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On the number of street children living in lira municipality, it varied from respondents to

respondents. 16 respondents said street children range from 1-20, 27 respondents said

they range from 21-100 and 2 respondents said they range from 101-200. This implies

that children living on the streets in Lira Municipality averages 60 in number.

On the number of street children returning to their families, 22 respondents said they

range from 1-20, 24 respondents said they range from 40-100 while 3 respondents said

they range from 101-200. This implies that more less equal number of those who stay in

the streets are equal with those returning home with average of 60 in number.

While those street children living with their families were found out to be very few with

barely over 41 respondents saying they range from 1-5 while 4 respondents saying they

range from 6-10. In total therefore, an estimated 130 children are living and working in

the streets of Lira Town.

A closed examination of age of the street children falling below 12years is as shown in

the table below.

TABLE 1: PERCENTAGEVARIATIONINTHESTREETCHILDRENLIVINGBELOW 12YEARS

PERCENTAGERANGE % FREQUENCY

1-20 19

21-40 0741-60 02

61-80 17

81-100 00

TOTAL 45

Source: Data collected by the researcher from the field.

From the above table, it can be deduced that the percentage of street children is small the

frequency of the respondents is high in the low percentage ranges and consequently

falling between 10-12 years.


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TABLE 2: PERCENTAGEVARIATIONINTHESTREETCHILDRENLIVINGABOVE 12 YEARS

PERCENTAGERANGE % FREQUENCY

1-20 11

21-40 1641-60 05

61-80 13

81-100 00

TOTAL 45

Source: Field.

From the above table 2, the majority respondents fall in the low percentage range

indicating that the majority of street childrens ages fall slightly above 12 presumably

12-16.

The gender of street children was analyzed. It was found out that there are many boys in

the street with majority of the respondents registering their responses in the percentage

range of 81-100% compared to girls with the majority respondents registering the

responses in the low percentage range of 1-20%.

Identification of girls on the streets is very important for planning purposes since the

public tend to have a biased mind that they are not in street.

Secondly, girls have unique needs which need a comprehensive study if they are to be

integrated in the rehabilitation centers/ learning centers and other places. Above all, girls

in the streets are more vulnerable to child abuse in an urban setting and when identified,

more protective measures can be put in place to safeguard them from the vices in the

society.

CAUSESOFSTREETCHILDRENINLIRAMUNICIPALITY, LIRADISTRICT

It was noted that there were3 category of causes of street children on the streets and these

include:

(a). CAUSESRELATEDTOTHECHILDORTHEFAMILY.


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It was found out that there were many causes of street children directly or indirectly

related to the child or family.

The following factors ranked according their frequencies of occurrences were found out

to be on the lead in a descending order: Domestic violence, death of parents, absolute

poverty, lack of basic needs failure to educate the child, war, child neglect, indiscipline

among the children, child abuse, peer group influence, HIV/Aids, entertainment and

aggressiveness of the step father/ mother or guardian as the 13th factor.

Other factors found with minimal effects on the cause of the street children included

mental illness and other form of disabilities, polygamy, visiting relatives, fear of work

from home, poor family planning and over drinking in a family.

It was noted that those causes directly related to parents out weighed those directly

related to a child. While others were beyond a childs making.

(b) CAUSESOFSTREETCHILDRENINTHELOCALCOMMUNITY.

It was found out that the leading cause of street children in the local community is child

abuse. This ranges from defilement, beating, child labor, witchcraft, among other child

abuses.

This factor was followed by war and insecurity, peer influence, harsh tradition in the

community, HIV/Aids and community negligence, bad leadership in the community,

domestic violence in the community, early marriages ,displacement of homes ,poverty

and inadequate counseling and guidance to mention but a few in their descending order.

The following factors too were identified as the cause of street children in the

community. They include:

Poor government policy, laws and by-laws In education sales promotion by big

multinational companies and other music shows through the use of public address

systems ,creation of slums, land conflicts ,and adolescent lifestyle.


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Whatever the causes, community contribution seems to be fairly below average in

causing street children compared to parent/ child role.

(c). CAUSESINTHEGENERALSOCIETY

The causes were analyzed and found out that wars in northern Uganda, societal

negligence, famine, poverty, and inadequate provision of education services, migration,

HIV / Aids and other diseases were on the lead in order of their appearances.

Societal conflicts, bad cultural practices in the societies, growth of slums and poor

government policy also leapfrogged to add onto other factors. It was however found out

that the prominent impact of wars in the northern Uganda in the cause of street children

were linked to the death of the parents of the street children and staying in internally

displaced peoples camps.

THENEEDSOFSTREETCHILDRENINLIRAMUNICIPALITY, LIRA DISTRICT.

For the purpose of classifying the needs of the street children, the researchers came up

with two categories and these include:

(a) GENERALNEEDS

The general needs of the street children wee found to be food, followed by education,

shelter, medical care, clothing, parental love, and security, petty job with entertainment,

money, guidance and counseling getting equal responses from the respondents.

It was observed that barely all the street children are malnourished.

Through wide consultation between the researcher and the children and their care givers,

limited access to food and difficulties in providing a balanced diet were key concerns.

It was also found out that there were very few initiatives addressing the street children in

lira municipality with exception of Child Restoration Outreach-Lira, UWESO, UK Trust,

War child Holland, Concerned Parents Association among others not forgetting the

intervention of local authorities, government servants and religious institutions.


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(b) FELTNEEDS

The felt needs are probably the most important needs in the eyes of the street children.

From our survey we found out the following needs according to their rankings: food,

clothes, shelter, education, parental love, money, entertainment, security, healthcare, free

movement, taking drugs while other needs such as good lifestyle, luxury life, petty jobs,

socialization, and return to their parents were found to be at the same score with the

majority respondents.

On whether the needs and priorities of the street children are the same, 26 respondents

responded that they are same while 17 respondents said they are not the same.

The following reasons were found out to support the responses of the respondents who

said street children have the same needs and priorities.

All street children have a right to basic needs lead with 28 respondents followed by

parental love, security and creation in Gods image. Other reasons were found out

indiscriminate sufferings brought as a result of insurgencies (LRA wars) and HIV/ Aids

affect all of them.

Of the reasons found for the differences in needs and priorities of the street children

include the following:

They dont have enough support from their parents.

They have differences in taste and preferences of their needs.

The shift in the age makes their needs to be different.

Other factors were found to be family attributes and behavioral attributes which are

inborn and inherited.

WAYSOFFULFILLINGGENERALNEEDSANDFELTNEEDSOFTHESTREETCHILDREN

(a)GENERALNEEDS

The following ways were found to be relevant in addressing the general needs of the

street children.

Establishment of rehabilitation centers or special homes for street children took the lead

according to our respondents.


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Providing them with basic needs, taking them back to school, counseling them,

organizing them in a group, establishing hospitals, rural development, talent

identification and promotion, freedom of expression, intervention of non governmental

organization to fund their needs, integration in the local society, returning them to their

families, providing security and money, fundraising from the donors to fund the gaps

identified and government interventions were identified to be alternative ways of

fulfilling the general needs of the street children.

(b)FELTNEEDS.

It was found out that the felt needs of the street children would be fulfilled by providing

them with the basic needs.

Other ways which follow meeting basic needs included sending them back to school,

giving them training on vocational skills, loving them, security, playing materials ,

sourcing for sponsors, integration with the family, leisure , governmental organization

interventions.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES UNDERTAKEN BY STREET CHILDREN IN LIRA MUNICIPALITY,

LIRADISTRICT

(a) POSITIVEATTRIBUTES

Being a source of casual labor to people and the community was found to be on the lead

followed by selling cheap commodities to the community.

Other activities included collecting scraps (metallic), developed life skills, provision of

security, source of entertainment, giving help, creating friendship, led to the rise of many

Non Governmental Organizations and disciplining the thieves at night.

(b) NEGATIVEATTRIBUTESOFTHEIRACTIVITIES

It was found out that the frequencies of the responses from the respondents were equally

distributed on almost all attributes of the activities. Among these attributes included theft

as the lead attribute, followed by fighting, alcohol, smoking, drugs, inhaling substance,

begging, noise making, abusing people on the street, raping, gambling, loitering on the


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streets, causing accidents, prostitution, killing fellow friends and being indiscipline in

their descending order.

PROBLEMSFACEDBYSTREETGIRLSANDBOYSINLIRAMUNICIPALITY, LIRADISTRICT.

According to research findings, it was found out that the problems facing the street girls

tend to differ from those facing street boys, although other problems cut across all the

sexes.

It was found out that lack of where to sleep was on the lead followed by what to eat. Poor

medical care was the third with rape of girls and boys falling immediately respectively.

Both boys and girls in the streets were found to be lacking clothes while those registered

their dissatisfaction on customers who cheat them.

Still in their rank, street boys and girls face death as a result of mob justice due to

stealing, followed by lack of education, security, clothes, defilement of girls, harassment

from the security guards on the streets, suffering from HIV/Aids and other diseases,

hatred by the public, forced labor, lack of guidance, lack of money, poverty,

imprisonment and others are being killed when they are innocent.

MODEOFSURVIVALOFSTREETCHILDRENINLIRAMUNICIPALITY, LIRADISTRICT

It was found out that stealing is the lead way of survival of street children, followed by

eating left over of food from the neighbors and rubbish pit.

These were followed by doing petty jobs for people and in turn they are paid , begging

money and food, collecting metallic scraps for sale, grabbing food, pick pocketing,

sleeping in hidden places and under verandas, getting food from good Samaritans such as

Child Restoration Outreach-lira in descending order according to the responses from

respondents.

It was however found out that although the leading mode of survival of street children

were offensive in nature, the positive ways of their survival lack enough support from the

community, government, Non Governmental organization, religious institutions and

persons of concern making their basic needs not to be catered.


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WHYSOMESTREETCHILDRENINSOMEAREASEEMTOSURVIVEBETTERTHANOTHERSINTHESAME

CIRCUMSTANCES

Analysis of the reasons put forward by the respondents agreed that the street children

conditions vary from one area to another area.

It was found out that the following factors ranked in the descending order contributed to

these variations. They include:

Active street children survive better than the lazy ones. This was ranked number one.

Good relationship with the surrounding people was ranked second.

Employment opportunities (casual work) offered to some street children was also pointed

out in the cause of better survival.

The principal of survival for the fittest where strong one use their weights to access basic

needs while weak ones suffer.

Some street children trap and fore people to help them compared to their colleagues who

are adamant.

Differences in communication skills where those with good interpersonal skills could

access help from many people compared to those with poor communication skills.

It was also found out that those street children with special talents survive better than

those without special talents.

Other obedient street children accept to be instructed and they benefit from free

counseling and guidance from the community and other organizations compared to those

who are disobedient.

Some street children are fast in identifying petty jobs compared to their friends making

them to earn a fair living.

Others steal to survive better than others.

Old ones on the street know how to survive than the new ones.

Others are beggars while others shy away.

Some street children who have relatives around town survive better than those who do

not have relatives because of access to some basic needs like food, clothes and others.

Some street children who have relatives around town survive better than those who do

not have relatives because of access to some basic needs like food, clothes and those


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street children who work in groups were found to survive better than those ones who are

isolated.

Some are provided with basic needs from the good Samaritans while others may not get

the opportunity.

Others live where there are rich people and get petty jobs faster compared to their

colleagues who live among the poor people.

Others survive well compared to their friends because they are snatchers of peoples

properties.

Some have homes and go back in the evening while others sleep in corridors and under

verandas and other hidden places.

Some street girls were found to have involved themselves in prostitution to earn a living

compared to their fellow girls and boys in the streets.

Disabled street children were found to survive poorly compared to their normal street

children who can walk faster, talk, hear and do work in order to earn a living.

Other respondents mentioned luck. Some street children are born lucky and therefore

their lucks increase every day in the streets.

Mobile ones are better off than immobile ones

While the age of the street children was found to be a factor in the variation. More elderly

ones survive better than the young ones because they can do petty jobs.

MAJORAREASOFCONCENTRATIONOFSTREETCHILDREN

The major areas of concentration of street children in lira municipality included: cuk

Atat market as the leading areas followed by bus park, lira main market, coronation park,

street corridors, Obote avenue road, Child Restoration Outreach-Lira office, Teso Bar,

Jinja Camp, Ojwina division, Te-obaya, Pipe video halls, Labor line, areas next to the

rubbish pits, Barogole, infront of Butcher, Gombolola Lira, slummy areas, lira super

market, produce line , jobless corner, cuk olok railways, washing bays, kicope, cu

komodo kakoge, and near dance halls.


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CONCLUSIONANDRECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSION.

The need to know the status of the street children in lira municipality has been the core

divine of this study. For this study to achieve this primary objective several research

questions were posed and plausible solutions sought.

In order for the study to be within a manageable proportion, both in term of time and

resources, the study was limited to four divisions in lira municipality and these include:

Ojwina, railways, central and Adyel division.

It was revealed from the research that street children living in street averages 60 in

numbers. This number varies slightly from the night survey report which revealed 40

street children and note that night survey figures are limited by the fact that certain areas

of street children concentration especially the youth are not accessible at night because

they are violent. However it is not clear whether this method is effective or not.

The research also revealed the age of 12 years old was statistically significant. The age of

12 years can therefore be used to predict variation in the age of street children below or

above it.

This survey research report also revealed that the male gender was more compared to

female gender in lira municipality. However the strategies used during the survey

research did not take into account girls staying in hidden places.This survey research reports that identification of girls in the street is very important for

planning purposes since the public tend to have a biased minds that they are not many in

the street in lira municipality.

The survey research revealed that domestic violence is the lead cause of street children

which is directly linked to parents in lira municipality. Nevertheless, other causes such as

the death of parents and other s were revealed too.

The study also revealed that the causes of street children are greatly related to a child or

family and lesser to the local community and general society.

The survey research report also revealed food as number one general need and felt need

of the street children since barely all the street children are malnourished. However other

needs were also revealed through the study which is vital in the lives of street children.


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The survey research reports that the overriding problem facing street children is where to

sleep. This was followed by what to eat. However the problems facing street girls and

boys were found to differ though majorities are the same

The study also revealed leading way of survival of street children is stealing followed by

eating left over of food from the neighbors and rubbish pits with some surviving better

than others.

RECOMMENDATIONS

RECOMMENDATIONSFORPOLICY.

1. The use of day and night survey head counts to establish the number of street

children in lira municipality should continue by Child Restoration Outreach - lira

2. Child Restoration Outreach-Lira should aim at providing more comprehensive

services to street girls though they prove difficult to be identified

3. Government, local authorities, Religious leaders, Community and Child

Restoration Outreach-Lira should design proper strategies of addressing domestic

violence and dealing with other causes of street children which are directly linked

to the family and the child

4. Government, religious leaders, local authorities, Child Restoration Outreach-Lira

and other Civil Society Organizations should ensure that the basic needs such as

food, shelter, education, medical care, clothing, parental love and other needs are

provided to the street children.

5. Local Government and Child Restoration Outreach- Lira should asses the

problems facing street girls and boys and generate ways of addressing them. They

should speedup the process of identifying street girls so that their unique problems

can be solved.

6. The Government, local communities, Child Restoration Outreach- Lira and other

Civil Society Organizations should provide alternative modes of survival of street

children that are acceptable in the society. Intensive counseling should be

administered to street children to desist from their former lives.


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7. Child Restoration Outreach- lira should fundraise resources to enhance her

concerted effort in restoration of lives of the former street children.

8. Further research should be done to evaluate the interventions / initiatives of child

restoration outreach lira and other agencies in providing services to street girls

and boys.


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Street Survey 2010

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