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

two perspectives continually concerned shelters managers because of the fear that
creating a dependency syndrome among children would equally encourage children to
live their homes in search of better services in shelters. In this regard, Intervention
efforts needed to be coordinated and collaborated programs of action between
government departments and shelters in order to prevent children from choosing to live
on the streets and intervene and reintegrate those who are already on the streets. This
link is necessary because different shelters approach the phenomenon of children
living and/or working on the streets from different perspectives, which mark their
uniqueness philosophically and ideologically.
The Durban Street Children's Forum was aimed to co-ordinate and to bring together
NGOs and shelters and be that link between shelters and government. Child Welfare
Department is charged with the responsibilities to oversee what shelters do and
implement. Shelters carry out their service delivery together with the intervention and
reintegration programs independently. The government appear contented with the input
of the shelters so long as they are registered according to the Child Care Amendment
Act 1996. There seems to be no concern how shelters are organized and run to meet
their objectives and the challenges of children living and/or working on the streets. In
view of this, a plausible question would be, is the present number of shelters enough to
meet the challenges of growing numbers of children living and/or working on the
streets? If so, are the shelters adequately organized to handle the new dimension of
HIV/AIDS? And if they are capable, are they meeting the challenges?
1.7 Research Methods Employed in the Study
The study relied on a qualitative form of enquiry because it allowed the focus on the
discursive and interaction nature of social science research (Henning, et al 2003). But
this should not be understood to mean that other approaches could not have been
applicable, but rather that the researcher was more comfortable in conducting and
making use of techniques and tools of qualitative inquiry (Henning, et al 2003: 7). More
important is the nature of data the study required to measure, the variables with regard
to the interface, experiences and interaction between shelter staff and residents on one
hand and on the other, the intervention/reintegration programs and shelter services.
The research sample size consisted of four shelters. In keeping with social science
research ethics, whereby anonymity and confidentiality have to be observed, the
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