Psychosocial Factor of being Street Children in Rwanda

This qualitative study investigates the reason why Rwanda still has street children despite a number of existing strategies against this phenomenon. Fourteen individual interviews were conducted. They included ten boys hosted in the “Enfants de Dieu” centre, who were former Street children; and four girls who were still living in the street and who were about to be recruited in one of the centres. Participants were aged between 10 and 14. The informed consent was obtained from all participants in agreement with their supposed responsible surrogates from the “Enfants de Dieu” centre as per the age of the participants. Findings revealed that poverty, lack of food, family priorities, family violence, and lack of shelter, deprivation of studies and inadequate upbringing of the children were said to be influencing the persistence of the phenomenon of street children in Rwanda. More effort to cover the children's basic needs as well as the effective support for their studies may be possible solutions to successfully face the persisting phenomenon of street children. It also would be good to provide parents with training on effective children upbringing in terms of the effectiveness of parental affection and in terms of guidance for children.