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

which reveal more than otherwise would be difficult to convey quantitatively. In this
regard, qualitative methods are appropriate in situations where the variables are first
identified and possibly later tested quantitatively, but also, where the researcher has
determined that quantitative measurements cannot adequately describe nor
approximate a given reality. In this case, research problems tend to be framed as
open-ended questions that will support discovery of new information and clarify a
situation. For example, Gaitskell's (1998) study on shelters for abused women in
Durban raised questions on the efficacy of shelters to help abused women and what
were women's perceptions and feelings. Similar concerns will be explored in this study
on shelters for children living and/or working on the streets. The ability of qualitative
data to capture and describe a phenomenon is an important consideration not only
from the researcher's perspective, but from the reader's perspective as well. Qualitative
research reports are rich in detail and insights of all experiences of the involved
participants in any given situation or world of study and in this sense, are more
meaningful to the reader. The researcher hopes and expects that the process of
qualitative research faithfully followed will derive useful information not only on the
nature of the shelters, but also on what they do on a daily basis. Qualitative approach
allowed managers to be interviewed and focus group discussion to take place in the
shelters, as the participants' natural setting. The process divulged information
regarding the views and experiences of shelters staffs as service providers and of
children as recipients of the shelter services. The choice of a qualitative approach is
significant and valid, not because as some people suppose that qualitative research is
soft and demands less rigor (Neuman 1997: 328), but because it allowed flexibility in
the process of the project, and therefore had the potential and capacity to derive data
which when interpreted will fit the situation under analysis. Consequently, the
information could inform policy makers on how best and at what cost the intervention
and reintegration of the deserving children living and/or working on the streets can
proceed because the phenomenon persists.
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