Street Children’s Drug Abuse and Their Psychosocial Actualities Synchronized with Intervention Strategies in South West Ethiopia

Abstract

Today’s children in developing countries are growing up in an increasingly stressful circumstance. As consumption of substances is increasing, the age of beginning is falling. Hence, this research examined street children’s drug abuse and their psychosocial actualities synchronized with intervention strategies. Explanatory sequential research design was employed. A total of 150 street children and four key informants were selected through simple random sampling lottery method and purposive sampling technique respectively. Questionnaires, interview guides, FGD probes and observation checklist were employed as tools of data collection. The result of the study portrayed that sniffing glue and gasoline were becoming the drugs of choice for most children living on the street. Further, street children faced various psychological and social strains from absence of meeting their basic social needs and services to certain disorders like depression, anxiety, and stress. Government bodies’ interventions were limited and inconsistent that only under goes informal education that could not bring considerable change; it lacks solidity and incompatibility with the number of street children runway over a time in the study area. In conclusion, most of the street children in South west Ethiopia were at adversary peak of drug abuse and psychosocial challenges. Thus, South-West areas Women and Children Affairs Offices, Labor and Social Affairs Offices and NGOs working on these matters ought to take these issues into greater consideration and act accordingly. In collaboration with professionals, they also need to work on drug free child sensitive preventive and rehabilitation counseling and other psychosocial support.