Effectiveness of Non governmental Organizations in the Rehabilitation of Street Children – Experiences from Selected NGOs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
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Date
2013-11-01
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Abstract
This paper is based on a study that sought to establish the effectiveness of Non Governmental Organizations
(NGOs) in rehabilitating street children in Dar es Salaam City. A number of strategies are deployed by the NGOs
to identify and pick the children from the streets for rehabilitation. These includes; conducting interviews in
order to know the child better, picking the children from the streets to drop-in centres, conducting medical check
up and screening to establish the health status of the children, and eventually conducting counselling so as to
change their street wise behaviour. Furthermore, family tracing and reunification, reach out programmes, welfare
meetings and reintegration as well as day out programs are conducted by the NGOs as ways of rehabilitating the
picked up street children. Beside the normal social services such as shelter, food and medical care, the rehabilitee
children are exposed to both formal and informal education through vocational training and talents development
programmes. All of these services are made possible by the respective NGOs who receive generous support from
donor agencies, private companies, individuals and to a little extent, the Government. A number of problems
have been found to limit the NGO’s efforts to accomplish their mission. Some of the problems are; lack of
enough funds. lack of community support, inadequate Government support, poor working environment, poor
educational background of the rehabilitees and lack of immediate trust of the children to their minders. This
paper proposes that street children, just like other children, are potentially principal agents for social change
though at the same time they are vulnerable to the problems that accompany the social changes. It is essential
therefore to examine what can be done to protect children from those social ills, and to harness their abundant
energies for constructive work in their communities.
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Keywords
Street Children, Non Governmental Organisations, Life Skills
Citation
Niboye, E.P., Effectiveness of Non governmental Organizations in the Rehabilitation of Street Children–Experiences from Selected NGOs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.