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

4.3.7 Shelters Activities
Managers often reminded staff and children the importance of keeping time but like we
have observed this was a continuous challenge. In certain circumstances, some
activities were abandoned due to lack of enough time. Shelters did not own certain
facilities e.g. play grounds consequently they relied on surrounding institutions to
provide them. The challenges were to keep the facilities in the same order after using
them. Managers negotiated with the institutions concerned the availability of the
facilities and their maintenance. Other social and recreational equipment broke down
after a short period of time, e.g. guitars, televisions, radios, pianos etc. It must be
emphasised here that this challenges are not peculiar to shelters, that it happens with
other public facilities and maintenance of the facilities is always a mater of concern for
public leaders. Managers were more concerned with the cost of maintenance while
they operated with small budgets due to financial conditions in the shelters. Time and
lack of adequate facilities constrained shelter activities, which further contributed to
children's boredom leading to absconding. Managers felt that shelters were in no
winning situation as one thing lead to another.
4.3.8 Registration and Funding of Shelters
Shelter managers felt that there is a need and room for shelters to be registered as
shelters for children living and/or working on the streets. Giving the shelters that
recognition in the law would broaden their financial based. However, managers were
concerned whether doing that would empower the shelters capacity to offer quality
services to children and as result attract more children on the streets something that
should not happen in the first place. They felt that government should lead by providing
a policy guideline specifically dealing with children living and/or working on the street.
They further expressed that shelter residential capacity should not exceed 30-50
residents because more than that number would not be adequately managed.
Managers had a perception that shelters play the numbers game to access more
funding from private donors or government. They felt that treating children as a source
of income was in itself an abuse of children's rights and unacceptable. They also
expressed that some programs were not fully implemented due to the shortage of
adequate funds e.g. follow-up programs once children were re-united with their families
or communities and skills training to empower children to be employable or self­
employed and as a result contribute economically to society.
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