M.P.H. Summer Internship Program

Tim Mercer

M.P.H. Candidate
Summer Internship in Eldoret, Kenya

According to the district children’s officer in Eldoret, Kenya, “Street children are a forgotten lot.” Situated in the rural highlands of western Kenya, Eldoret is a resource–poor, mid–sized city experiencing rapid urbanization. Outcast and marginalized by society, street children are often referred to as chokoras, roughly translated from Kiswahili as “someone digging in the garbage or dustbins in search of food and other valuables.” Orphans of family disintegration, abuse, urbanization, parental death, and unsafe living environments, they all share the common thread of being raised in extreme poverty. Nearly all struggle with drug addiction, and they suffer from preventable and treatable diseases, but completely lack any connection to medical or social services. There are approximately 150 million street children worldwide, and in 1997, there were an estimated 1,000 street children in Eldoret. Over a decade later, this number is most certainly a gross underestimation due to the urbanization of poverty, the rising death toll from AIDS on mothers and fathers, and most recently, the catastrophic consequences of Kenya’s post–election violence.

Partnering with the Ex–Street Children Community Based Organization and a team of local community health workers and research assistants, we conducted a comprehensive, community–based field study of street children, their families, and their social environment in Eldoret. Using an ecological framework to guide the multilevel approach, we used qualitative research methods, interviewing 70 street children, 25 families, and 10 community members in an effort to understand and characterize the population of street children and their families in Eldoret. Questions and observations specifically targeted demographics, family backgrounds, reasons for adopting street life, ways of obtaining food and income, living and working environments, drug and alcohol use, perceived barriers to leaving the streets and possible solutions for preventing and abandoning street life. The findings of this study will be shared with the wider Eldoret community in an effort to mobilize efforts to develop sustainable solutions for street children and their families.

Two overarching conclusions from the research emerged and have strong implications for truly bridging this research to interventions. First, although street children have seemingly obvious material needs and are denied basic human rights—food, clothing, shelter, education, and healthcare—the required solutions are much more complex than the simple provision of these lacking goods and services. Second, street children in Eldoret need a safe, physical space off the streets where they can interact in a positive social environment, access educational, medical, and social services, and fundamentally enjoy their rights as children.

All pictures courtesy of Tim Mercer.

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