Paper details

Paper authors	Nancy SAY KANA
In panel on	Impacts of war and displacement on refugees’ educational trajectories
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Worldwide, many children and young people live in the street. In the Eastern of D. R. Congo, there is an important number of “street children”, phenomenon that seems to be connected to the long lasting and recurring episodes of war. Yet, little is still unknown on the role of armed conflicts in the motives of children to join the street. This study therefore, aims to gain insight on the “role of armed conflicts in the trajectories of street children in Eastern R.D.Congo”. Community researchers (i.e., former street children) conducted semi-structured interviews with 102 street children aged 12-18 years. Two main categories of motives impacting children’s decision to join street were motives related to the armed conflicts (e.g. attacks of rebels, repeated displacement) and no war- related motives (e.g. poverty, change in the family, violence and abuse in the family, etc.). Most children indicated multiple motives which came into play in a chronological chain yet mostly starting off with one or more war-related motives. Our findings point to several preventive and curative actions in the phenomenon of street children, both for children themselves as for their families.

Keywords :
Armed conflict, street children, community researchers, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

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