Understanding the impact of societal stigmatization on the survival of street children: Creating a pathway for effective intervention of addressing the plight of street children in Kampala city, Uganda.

Over the years, various scholars have produced relevant literatures that critically discuss street children, with recommendations on various types of intervention programs that can be used to remove them from the street. Rather than joining the dominant discourse of casual factors that led to children being on the street, this study brings stigmatization to the forefront of discussions about street children in order to help create more effective interventions that could either reduce their being on the street and/or improve their living conditions. Therefore, this study highlights how stigmatization – particularly categorization and labeling, and discrimination – negatively impacts street children’s wellbeing. It does this in relation to the extensively stated opinions of street children, adults in the communities, government officials and non-state actors in Kampala city of Uganda. Stigmatization, labeling, discrimination and prejudice encountered by street children in many ways will hinder the success of intervention programs if the actors did not critically assess the impact it has on the children they are planning to help. I argue that the lens through which the government or NGOs and CSOs view street children to a large extent influences the types of intervention they design to address the plight of the children. Most essentially, the intervention approaches of the government and NGOs are poles apart. While the government focuses on sanitation of the city, the NGO’s approach follows the rescue model. I recommend that government and non-state actors should initiate public awareness campaigns to address the negative perceptions of street children, by appreciating the realities of street children’s lives and considering the reasons why they engage in survival tactic.