ISSN 2360-7998
Abstract
Accepted 28th March, 2020.
A number of Humanitarian organizations are involved in the welfare of children all over the world. One of such organizations is the Street Child Organization of Sierra Leone (SCoSL). This was formed in 2008 by a business man in London. His main aim was to reduce the number of children on the street by sending them to school or re-unite them with their families. The study investigated the contributions of Street Child Organization of Sierra Leone towards vulnerable street children in Kenema city. The forces that push children to the street and the challenges were also looked into. The study design is descriptive and was done in Kenema City, Nongowa Chiefdom, Eastern Sierra Leone. Data were collected using structured questionnaire for workers in SCoSL and interviews were conducted for the staff of SCoSL and street children. The findings revealed that there were more men working for the organization. The assistance given to children were education, trauma counseling, child protection, Medicare and livelihood support. The organization faced a number of challenges including: difficulty to remove the children from the street; Peer group influence, low contributions from other child welfare organizations, inadequate financial and material resources and insincerity of some care takers. To reduce children in the street the following recommendations were made: Government should provide support and enforce laws governing free and compulsory quality education. Non Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) should continue to give adequate support that will help remove vulnerable children from the street. Local authorities must help provide information about street children, to child welfare organizations and help government in support of free and compulsory quality education to ensure that children are removed from the street of Kenema city.
Keywords: Humanitarian organizations, welfare of children, Kenema city, Eastern Sierra Leone