Profiles of Street Children and the Role of Selected Non-Government Organizations in the Upliftment of their Conditions

Abstract

This study explores on the current situation of street children, their socioeconomic profiles, their life on the streets and their reasons for staying on the streets. This study also looks at the different approaches such as communitybased, center-based and street-based strategies done by non-government organizations in helping and supporting street children. Moreover, the study intends to determine the effectivity of non-government organizations in providing child welfare services based on the perceptions of the children receiving these services. In gathering the data, interviews with the children were conducted with the help of questionnaires which included the two working hypotheses of the study. Accidental sampling method was used which covered eighty five respondents all in all, forty from different sites in the cities of Makati and Manila and forty five from the two selected NGOs. Major findings of the study include: children are in their early stage of adolescence with a mean age of twelve years old, majority of their parents did not finish school and are employed as non-professionals, majority of the children come from large families of six, seven or eight members and live with one or both parents and their siblings, the children are out on the streets to earn a living, their activities on the streets include selling, begging, scavenging, playing and hanging out, a combination of the three major strategies are being used by the NGOs covered in the study and NGOs proved to be effective in providing child welfare services based from the answers of the children.