A Study of Shelters for Street Children from an Organizational ...

een on the streets for a very long time and it was difficult to re-orient them away from
the street characteristics. The process was slow and time consuming. Ennew (1994:
151-154) argues that the best solution to these difficulties was for shelters staff to learn
to listen and work with children themselves. In this regard, children would inform on
what they like to do, how that would be achieved, and what programs would best work
for them. Working with children rather than providing services for them would be the
best ideal form of intervention.
5.6.1 Children's Behaviour
Children's behaviour was shelters first dilemma and included (1) meeting the needs of
individual children. Individual children came to the shelters with different difficulties and
different expectations. (2) Their problems were individually experienced at home and
on street environments. For example, not all children experienced sexual abuse or
exposure to criminality either as victims or perpetrators. (3) Once children were
admitted and made to live in the same dormitories, some children carried on with their
habits of either sexually abusing other children or stealing from other children. (4)
Shelters in the sample had difficulties of instilling discipline to children and maintaining
order in the shelters. In this regard, the regulations and routine in the shelters mirrored
the organised society which has the prerogative of establishing and maintaining order.
(5) Fay (1996:69) argues that society, like culture' acts as enabler and constrainer of
certain individual actions and behaviours viewed this way, shelters' regulations and
routine allowed children to do certain deeds and at the same time constrained their
behaviour. For example, shelters' rules prohibited children to smoke in shelters on one
hand 'constrained', but on the other hand, allowed them to use their creativity in
numeracy and skills training 'enabling'. This perspective raises complications in the
roles that shelters should play in the lives of the children. Should the shelters recognize
and support children's world of street characteristics or would shelters' restrict and
deny children the right of expression and in this case 'street life experiences'? For
example, the habit of early sexual experiences was felt not good for children and was
to be stopped yet older children found it difficult to stop and wanted shelter's flexibility
over the matter. The question remained open what shelters would do. Children's
behavioural characteristics were constantly of concern to shelters managers and staff
and left them baffled as to the best way to handle intervention and reintegration
strategies effectively.
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