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

• enrolling them to institutions of learning and skills training
• advocacy in order that children get their official necessary documents
• reintegrating them with their families or communities where possible and
• Shelters were to implement the programs of interventionslreintegration through
networking, collaboration and coordination.
5.7.2 Staff
Staff experiences can be categorized in two divergent points derived from their
concerns and perceptions with regard to shelters, low pay, non-participation in
decision-making, and the problems of children's discipline.
1) Staffs were selflessly dedicated to their service to shelters and children. They
saw shelters as purposeful and functional institutions in society. Shelters were
providing necessary basic services to children in need and welfare of children and as a
result shelter services were essential to society at large. In this respect staff valued
shelters and their services, more than their self-interests. Consequently they
reasonably saw no need to raise the issues of salary increases with managements.
This was in line with their desire to go along with the perceived and defined role of
shelters in society. Consequently, they worked with vigour and determination because
they viewed it their mission to help children. Even when they were not involved in
decision-making processes, they felt that it was immaterial or of no consequence
because the purpose of shelters was to address the plight of children. Staff repeatedly
stated that children living and/or working on the streets needed help because of the
difficult circumstances they experienced on the streets. The streets, in the views of
staff, exposed children to crime, alcohol, substance and sexual abused, and risk
behaviours, consequently, intervention and reintegration programs were necessary.
2) Nicholson (2001 :48-49) noted that there was a high rate of un-employment and
cognizant of this factor, staff did everything possible to hold on to their jobs. In this
regard, low pay and difficult working conditions was inconsequential. They individually
had capacity and tendency to reinvest themselves within the broad framework of
governance, thereby suppressing any reason to question how things were run in the
shelters. In this regard, it is possible that individuals become 'self-actualized', which
Foucault referred to as self-governmentality (Dean, 1994: 197-199). Self-actualization
by staff hinged on their desire to work and to remain employed which, as they
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