Title: An Ethnographic Study about the Homeless Youth in the Philippines Target Group: Street Children
ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY
A requirement in
Society and Culture
GAMALIEL VALENCIA
Submitted by:
Belarmino, Mary Grace S.
INTRODUCTION:
I chose to study the life and behaviors of the street children on the busy road of Balibago Complex at Sta. Rosa Laguna, to gain a better understanding of their conditions. The main purpose of this study is to discover how they manage to live in a very dangerous condition, as well as the perception of trust, hostility, and aggression among peers and the authority. It also aims to find out their lives regarding their families, if they have one and why they decided to run away from them. Why do they
…show more content…
The EFA plan for 2004 to 2015 is now on. The National Project on Street Children provides educational assistance to street children through a network of government, non-government, and community organizations. Regardless of this progress, two major challenges remain, formal and non-formal schools need to adjust their educational system to cater to children with irregular schedules and learning capacities, and facilities need to be closer to where disadvantaged children reside and work.
UNCHS (2000) 4 : There are two groups of street children. The first group is ‘Children of the street’, which refers to children who are homeless, and streets in urban areas are their source of livelihood, where they sleep and live. The second group is ‘Children on the street’, who work and live on the streets in the daytime but return back home at night where they sleep, although some of them sleep occasionally on the streets.
Patel, 1990; Le Roux and Smith, 1998; Lugalla and Mbwambo, 1999 5 : There are two main causes of the phenomenon of street children. The first is the economic stress and poor conditions that families face due to industrialization and urbanization. The second cause is changes in the traditional family structure, especially when women became
The ethnography in “With No Direction Home” by Marni Finkelstein was quite astounding. The group Finkelstein studied were street kids no older than the age of 20. Finkelstein did not interview kids over 20 because he said kids under the age of 21 rely on their families for social and financial support. He studied kids under 20 because those groups are most vulnerable to the lack of familial support and wanted to determine whether it will affect their self behaviour. These interviews and observations were constructed in the East Village of New York. The kids interviewed were from all over the place like New Jersey, Northeastern states, Southwest, Midwest, Southwest..etc. This study took place in the year 2005. Finkelstein tried to answer
In the United States, most states require three separate components in the supply chain: producers, distributors, and retailers. This three-tiered system insulates distributors, as beer producers are not permitted to sell beer directly to retailers or consumers.[5] The regulations in place augment the power of buyers. Furthermore, distributors’ purchase volume as a percent of the focal industry’s output is high. Conversely, the relative power of distributors is dependent on how reliant their revenues are on beer sales. Overall, due to the relatively larger number of distributors compared to beer manufacturers, the dominant position of the three largest brewers, as well as the brand loyalty created by the manufacturers through brand differentiation, the power of buyers is moderate.
The book “With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets” written by Marni Finkelstein refers to the homeless youth. This book describes the lifestyle of the teenagers with no home and explains with detail about what consist in their everyday lives in the streets of New York City. The purpose of this book is to explain to people who these kids are and to see life in their point of view. It explains the difference between street kids and the kids that live on the street. We need to understand that the kids that live on the streets have their own culture and their own way of surviving. Learning their point of view would be a great eye opening experience for everyone and to also understand their struggle. This book explains a study that was done to 50 street kids and life on the streets.
The ethnography With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets by Marni Finkelstein, describes the life of street youth in New York City. The ethnography attempts to debunk myths that prior studies have formed of these street youths. The author, Marni Finkelstein is an Anthropologist renowned for her work on urban populations at risk. She graduated from the New School of Social Research in New York City with her PhD in Anthropology. Finkelstein has also conducted studies on substance abuse, sexual assaults and drug use of youths in New York City. Finkelstein achieves her goals, by using a scientific approach when observing the street youths. A few methods she utilizes are similar to that have been previous used but
In every city there are neighborhoods that struggle with the issue of violence, crime and aggression. These neighborhoods have also taken on the names of slums and ghettos. The same areas where children are faced with growing up too fast because of the violence, crime and drug trafficking that has taken over these communities. Not only do these children and young adult face with these issues, they are also faced with the reality that in these disorganized neighborhoods, there is a breakdown of the traditional family therefore they must learn and master the code of conduct and or the rules of the streets in order to survive. Not to mention learning the demands of socially regarding displaying appropriate behavior when they are outside of the disorganized community.
Homelessness, especially among the youth (12-24 years of age), is difficult to capture in data due to the invisibility of this population. The homeless and independent youth are, generally, not part of formal institutions like homeless shelters or mental health systems. As a response to the dire circumstances these youths face on a daily basis, they come to rely on internal informal networks that they trust. Consequently, it is common for young, homeless and independent, individuals to temporarily stay with different friends: constantly moving from one couch to another. This network of trust is invaluable to this population and is a potential key for policy makers to look at unconventional methods to identify and address the most pressing needs.
“Orphans, Foundlings, waifs, half-orphans, street Arabs, and street urchins were terms used to describe abandoned children” (DiPasquale). In New York City alone, there were 30,000 homeless children in the 1850’s (The Orphan Trains). Children averaging from six to eighteen lived very homeless and neglecting lives and had little to no hope for a successful life. Children’s lives, orphanages, and Orphan Trains changed the way children lived during the 1800s.
In every community, boys and girls are left to find their own recreation and companionship in the streets. An
Alone and troubled, surving the hardship of the world all by yourself. Youth are unfortunate to have life experience on how to survive the world, many youth don’t have job experience or money to support themselves to get back in school and live a normal life style. Becoming homeless at a young age puts a great deal of damage on teenagers, the longer time period a person is homeless can cause long term emotional and psychical harm considering the distant they have to go to just to survive. Living on the streets, youth doesn’t get three square meals a day like a average teenager would, they live off poor diets and lack of malnutrition causing the effects of having a
Homeless youth are a standout amongst the most underestimated gatherings in our general public. Numerous specialists recognize much more elevated amounts of different issue practices among these adolescent contrasted with their non-homeless associates. The current study analyzed the utility of social capital in foreseeing issue practices among homeless youth.
Homelessness is a major problem in the United States. An incredibly vulnerable group is the homeless youth due to their young age and lack of education. According to Edidin, Ganim, Hunter, & Karnik (2012) on any particular night in the United States there are ~2 million homeless youth living on the streets, in shelters, or in other temporary accommodation. Youth become homeless for multiple reasons whether it be because they have aged out of foster care, ran from home, were kicked out of their home, or because they have become homeless along with their family members. Within the umbrella categorization of homeless youth there are high at risk subgroups, common misconceptions, and a serious concern of lack of support and medical services.
Throughout the United States, there are a large number of individuals that goes unnoticed. Hidden in right plain sight, but are overlooked. They can be our friends, family, classmates, or the person standing right next you to at this moment. There are young individuals who are facing the tremendous challenge of being homeless. They are overlooked by many in society. However, there have been countless individuals, groups, organizations dedicated to ending youth homelessness. However, they are confronted with challenges due to the lack of interest. The lack of interest found within society can contribute to barriers to ending youth homelessness.
Hobo, beggar, and bum are just a few terms used in society today to describe the homeless community. Today, more and more individuals and families are becoming homeless and majority of them never imagined being homeless. This tragic event could happen to anyone. There is not a guide created to overcome the barriers of homelessness or a "how to manual" when an individual or family is faced with homelessness. "Homelessness occurs when people or households are unable to acquire and/or maintain housing" (End Homelessness, 2016).
Walking through a major city or metropolitan area there are a countless number of people who are wearing old and ripped clothing, carrying bags or pushing grocery carts full of junk, looking like they have not bathed in weeks and most of them holding signs begging for change just so they can eat something that day. Over the past eight years the amount of homeless individuals has continuously decreased throughout the country. Homelessness in America is a serious problem, especially with higher rates in unemployment happening. Americans
Imagine if a city has a rise in the homeless population there may not be enough beds for the night, which will result with some individuals being turned away. Many of the homeless youth are on the street not choice, and they normally have begged on the street for food just to live. Did you know that unstable homes can vary from couch hoping to extremes like children/youth having sex for shelter for the night? This is the situation that many homeless children on the street must face, if there is no room in the shelters or if they did not get enough food to survive for the day. Understandably, this can happen to homeless adults, but they have more strength to fight back, whereas children/youth who are smaller in structure may not be able to fight back. As a result, there are many individuals out in the world who would love to exploit the weakness of these children. Homeless children can easily be sex trafficked because most of the time they need food or shelter.