Citation

Reza MH, Bromfield NF. Br. J. Soc. Work 2019; 49(5): 1105-1123.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjsw/bcy047

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In Bangladesh, an estimated one to three million street children face poverty, violence and social stigma daily. This qualitative study of seventy-five child participants from three sites in Dhaka, Bangladesh, explores how street children in Bangladesh engage in financial transactions in their social networks to build resiliency and sustain contextual well-being under conditions of extreme adversity. For these street children, contextual well-being refers to the context of living and surviving on the street (i.e. access to food, shelter, safety, sense of belonging). Our findings indicate that both significant vulnerabilities and adaptive responses in street children's lives are common across participants. Daily life for these children consists of attaining money and then spending it quickly as a means of survival. Significant vulnerabilities for these children are the need to engage in daily income generation along with income uncertainty; an adaptive response among the participants is the engagement in financial transactions within their peer networks.

FINDINGS also show that street children are deeply embedded in these social networks, which work to sustain their well-being. We argue that interventions for Bangladeshi street children should be peer-based, grounded in a strengths perspective, and promote resilience.