This document summarizes a presentation on a study of children working on the streets of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It discusses findings from interviews with 32 working children, aged 8-16, on their work, earnings, family support, and future plans. Key findings include: children work in various jobs like selling goods and shoe shining to earn $4-23 daily; earnings support food, rent, and savings, with savings often used to support families during holidays; while some children are happy to contribute, others do not enjoy the work responsibilities; and future plans range from practical small businesses to aspirations like becoming a doctor that may be difficult to achieve given their circumstances. The conclusions emphasize the diversity of these children and how social and

1. Little Children
Sustaining
Families
Children Working on the
Streets of Addis
Emebet Mulugeta (Ph.D.)
Presented at the East African Regional
Symposium on Child Work/Child Labour,
Addis Ababa, 20-21 March 2014

2. Presentation Outline
 Background
 Objectives
 Methodology
 Findings:
 The Children
 Working, Earning, Spending and Saving
 Supporting and Sustaining Families
 Future Plans
 Conclusions and Policy Implications
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3. Background
 High prevalence of working children in
Latin America, Asia and Africa.
 Most have economic contributions,
however how they do it, in what ways is
not sufficiently explored, and the
variations among the children and the
types of support they offer are not
sufficiently discussed.
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4. Objectives
 Describe the diversity among children
working on the streets;
 Describe the kind of relationship the
children have with their family;
 Highlight their role in supporting and
sustaining families; and
 Discuss claimed opportunities and the
challenges encountered.
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5. Methodology
 Qualitative approaches, the main data
collection instrument interviews (NOV 2008 &
June 2010);
 Purposive sampling
 Area – Merkato, Kirkos, Kolfe, and Shiro
Meda;
 Interviewees – purposive sampling
complemented by snowball:
 32 children under 18, 6 girls and 26 boys;
 Analyses
 Thematic analysis.
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6. Findings
The Children
 32 children: 26 boys and 6 girls.
 Age ranges from 8 to 16, the median age being
13.
 Seventeen children came from rural areas, and
the rest (15) were from Addis.
 Among the rural children, except 2 the rest from
SNNPR:
 The living arrangement varies from rural to urban areas:
 Addis: 10 among 15 children of Addis live at least with one
relatives.
 Rural: close to half (8) with a brother and sometimes with a
brother and other friends. Except 3, the rest live with relatives.
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7. The Children Continued …
 Both Addis and rural children have close relationship
with families.
 Thirteen of the 17 children from the rural areas have
families working on subsistence farming. Some
mothers do petty trading.
 Most of parents of children in Addis are engaged in
low earning jobs.
 Implications on life situation: housing, meals, and others
 All the Addis children go to school, except one girl
 Rural only 6 attend school.
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8. Work, Earning and Spending
Work and Earning
 Thirteen sell various items: plastic bags,
chewing gums, candies, lottery tickets,
and other goods;
 Ten shine shoes and the rest provide small
changes for taxi drivers, sell coffee, injera
and apprenticing in a shoe workshop.
 Daily income ranges from Birr 4 to Birr 23,
the average being Birr 12.
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9. Spending
 Food is one of the expenses: except 4 all
Addis children eat their meals at home; 4
eat one meal, breakfast or small snacks
for 2 to 5 Birr.
 Children from rural areas eat at least 2
meals out: breakfast is between 3.25 to 4
Birr and lunch or dinner between 5 to 8
Birr.
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10. Spending Continued …
 There are many children who skip meals:
Do you cook at home, for dinner may be?
If somebody has dinner they bring it and we eat. And if
we don’t have dinner we will have just coffee
and go to bed (Paulos, 8 years old boy).
Is this [4 Birr] for lunch, or is that what you spend per day?
This is only for breakfast. I don’t eat lunch.
“aymechim”.
Is this what you always have for breakfast?
Sometimes I eat my breakfast and lunch together.
But sometimes I only have biscuit for breakfast
(Tadele, a 14 years old boy).
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11. Spending Continued …
 Most of the rural children also have to pay
rent:
How much do you pay for rent per month?
250 Birr. But there are five of us living together
and we pay 50 Birr each (Yakob, a 16 yrs old
boy).
How much do you pay per month for rent?
250 Birr/ month (Tadele 14 yrs old boy).
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12. Savings
 After the expenses food, rent, clothes and school
materials, except a few children, all save in various
ways: with a brother or other trusted person; bank
(a small wooden box ); iqub (a traditional saving
scheme), etc.
What do you do with the money you are left with?
I save it.
Where do you keep it?
At home (Tadele, a 14 yrs old boy).
Do you save money?
Yes.
Where do you save your money?
I have a bank at home (Sophia, a 15 yrs old girl).
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13. Savings Continued …
Do you save money?
Yes, I have a bank.
How much money do you have?
It was before, but now I don’t save I have started
iqub.
You have iqub?
Yes.
How much is it that you pay for your iqub?
5 birr per day (Messay, an 11 yrs old boy).
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14. Supporting Families
 Savings are used for various purposes. The
major one is supporting families. For children
from SNNPR, the major highlight is going for
Meskel or Ramadan.
What are your plans for the iqub money?
When I collect the iqub money, I will save it with one
of the older friends I live with. Then I will join another
iqub to save enough money to buy the things for
Meskel for my family. If I have enough money then I
will buy myself some clothes.
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15. Supporting Families Continued …
Did you send money to your parents since you came
to Addis?
Yes.
How much?
I sent 300 Birr during Ramadan.
What are your plans for the iqub money?
I want to buy clothes for my mother and my father.
I want to send them money (Sophia, a 15 yrs old
girl).
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16. Supporting Families Continued …
 They also want to buy their families cattle or small
animals to raise and generate income, rebuild
leaking houses, etc.
How much money did you send them so far?
I sent 50 Birr once and later I sent 100 Birr to my father to
buy sheep (Paulos, an 8 yrs old boy).
Did you send them any money since you came here?
Yes. I sent them 300 Birr to buy sheep to rear.
Have you asked them if they bought the sheep?
Yes. They did (Kibru a 13 yrs old boy).
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17. Supporting Families Continued …
 For children in Addis the support is mostly,
on day-to-day basis to meet the food
needs and other necessities of the family.
What do you do with the money you make now working on
Saturdays?
I give it to my mother.
What does she do with it?
She buys food for us. (Abdulahi, a 12 yrs old boy).
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18. Supporting Families Continued …
When you come back from school, do you ask
your mother if she has something for dinner?
Yes. But I usually meet her as she brings the
children from school. And I ask her then. If she
doesn’t have food I take one birr for bus and go
to work….If she tells me there is nothing, I send
my exercise books with her and rush to Merkato
to work. (Zeberga, a 12 yrs old boy).
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19. Supporting Families Continued …
 Many of the children continue working
and supporting out of sense of
obligations.
What does your mother say about your work now, you
are able to support yourself and support your family
too.
She is happy I am able to work and make money.
But sometimes I don’t like to work. I want to rest and
hang out with my friends.… But when I remember
that the money I bring home is necessary for the
family, I stop thinking like this (Kemal, a 14 yrs old
boy).
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20. Future Plans
 The children have various dreams for their
future. The Addis children talk of professions
such as a teacher, doctor, engineer and
some talked about owning a business.
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21. Future Plans Continued …
 Some are realistic like the boy who saved
money and planning to open a small shop.
How much do you have in your bank now?
8,000 birr.
Do you think you have enough money for the work you
are planning to do?
Yes. I don’t want to spend all my money, since I am
going to start a new business. It may even go
bankrupt. So I don’t want to spend much money at
first. It will just be a small shop for a start (Nisru, a 16
yrs old boy from Addis).
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22. Future Plans Continued …
What would you like to do in the future?
Shoe. Of course.
Shoe making?
Yes. Making shoes and selling them. Just like him
(Abebe, a 16 yrs old boy).
 The rural children: a driver, selling clothes,
owning a shop. Some have vague and
diffused plans: going abroad and living
comfortable.
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23. Future Plans Continued …
 Considering the situation that they
currently live, it would be difficult for many
to realize their dreams.
 Both rural and urban children leave from
hand-to-mouth, which leaves them
nothing to build on to achieve their
dreams.
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24. Challenges
 The children encounter various challenges
and not all appreciate their experiences.
You don’t want to be a big businessman?
I hate it. Even now I am obligated to work.
What is that you hate about it?
I get tired when I go around selling my things, the
heat and everything… (Hassen, a 12 yrs old boy).
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25. Challenges Continued …
In general, what do you say is the biggest problem which
is preventing you from going somewhere in your life?
If I do not do listro… anyway, it is not something I can
describe. It is very hard. When you sit here people say
lots of things to you. Do you understand? It is no use to
list all (Wubalem, a 16 yrs old girl).
Didn’t your mother say no when you asked her for
permission to work?
No they are the ones who told me that I should start to
work.
Were you happy to start work like your friends?
No. I do not like it (Brook a 13 yrs old boy).
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26. Challenges Continued …
 The unhappiness is not shared by many of
the rural children.
Now you are working, and going to school and
looking forward to go for Meskel, are you happy?
Yes.
What makes you happy?
I am happy to take umbrella, dress, shoes, and
shawl for my mother. Clothes, shoes, exercise
books and bag for my sister too. And to take
kerosene, shiro, berbere, butter for home. I will also
take soap (Melaku, an 8 year old boy).
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27. Challenges Continued …
Are you happy with your life?
Yes. Very much. I am very happy for being able to
work and at the same time go to school. Besides, I
am doing good at school (Yakob, a 16 year old
boy).
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28. Conclusions
 We find diverse group of children working on the
streets.
 Most children work out of necessity to support their
families and themselves.
 They support and sustain families in various ways.
 All the children have close relationship with their
families.
 The rural children keep in touch with their families,
through visits, letters, messengers, telephone calls.
 Not all like this responsibilities, nor appreciate their
experiences.
 Some talked about opportunities.
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29. Conclusions Continued…
 As discussed by in Bronfenbrener’s
Ecological Theory of Development,
individuals are the outcome of not only
the self, but of the influences from the
environment at different levels.
 Microsystem: their families are low income
and they need the money earned by the
children, at best the children need to
support themselves. In some cases the
children are asked to work.
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30. Conclusions Continued…
 Mesosystem: the interaction created by
the family and the surrounding culture,
formal and informal rules (exosystem),
encourages or pushes the children to
work and support families.
 Chronosystem: The area where most rural
children came from is known for its high
population density and food insecurity. In
addition to the long history of migration,
this problem encourages children to
migrate and work to support families.
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31. Policy Implications
 Diversity of children working on the streets.
 Influences of social and systemic factors
at various levels and the need to address
these.
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32. Children Sustaining Families
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