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Thank you for the work you’ve done and continue to do. It’s always inspiring to see an individual contributing to so much positive change by tackling such important and sensitive issues, head on.

I strive to become a change agent as well but when dealing with certain situations, such as “vulnerable” children affected by poverty and hunger, in some cases mistreated by adults in their environment, I could see my emotions getting the better of me (sadness, frustration, anger). I see the importance of understanding the issues from the perspective of the people affected by the tough circumstances, and the importance of helping empowering and enabling them to deal with their problems. It is hard to contribute however, when emotional instability may be preventing you from acting rationally.

Essentially, I would like to ask for tips for staying composed when working on sensitive and emotional, and very important, issues.

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First of all thank you for your continued work.

I have recently read about how the Medicare debate in the USA is still being pushed. In your opinion, how difficult is it to incorporate Medicare into developing countries, when there are still developed countries with the resources that have not yet figured out the issue. To what degree does political climate play a role in Medicare?

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I found it interesting to read in your paper about different social constructions around children or street children influences how people perceive or work with issues related to this, as well as how it shapes the creation of identity on children themselves.

My questions in relation to this are: How do you think it is possible to let children define problems themselves in a bigger extent? In what ways might this be problematic regarding the situation they are in and that they are already defined and seen as children? I also wonder what you think of the balance between practical help such as money, food or education and structural change in social norms or politics?

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I must first thank you for taking the time to come and share your experiences from doing the work that you do.

I can see that you have received many great questions already regarding your emphasis on how solutions can be shaped from within the social context of the children, like enhancing their own roles as change agents and working with actors from their local communities as caregivers (financially and vocationally supported by external actors).

As an inspiring fieldworker/researcher myself, I would like to hear your thoughts on certain ethical considerations that came to mind as I was reading your thesis. It was clear that there was a necessity for a bond (of trust if nothing else) to be created between you and the child-respondents in order for you to conduct the study. I wonder if it was difficult to balance the need for those strong bonds, while at the same time knowing that you will eventually leave these children so keeping an emotional distance may also be considered necessary. Do you feel that you have any moral obligations towards these children also after the study has been concluded? Are there general ethical guidelines to be followed around such matters?

All the best,
Josefine

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Thank you kindly for making the time to come and speak with us on Monday, I truly look forward to meeting you and discussing your incredible research and work. I am extremely inspired by your work and this is an area that I am very passionate about and would like to work within.

Children experiencing poverty and multiple other hardships have extremely vulnerable mental and physical wellbeing. You have mentioned multiple different strategies for caregivers and the importance of empowering these children and their contribution with decision making for improvement. What is the biggest barrier inhibiting sustainable change and improved wellbeing for children experiencing poverty, especially for those working within the sex industry? At what level do you think sustainable intervention needs to come from/be implemented at?

What do you believe it will take and within what time frame for society's behaviour and attitude to change and reduce the stigma and marginalisation these children experience? How can we reduce the desensitisation that society has come to experience through the media?

I was wondering if you had any key role-models who inspired/motivated your work and research or whether it began through your personal experiences and interactions with these children?

Thank you in advance for your time and sharing your research and experiences with us.

Kind regards,

Josephine.

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In the section 'Ethical Considerations,' of your research 'From Children of the Garbage Bins to Citizens' you expand on the risks (for the children) when participating in your research. I was wondering whether it was difficult to convince these children of the confidentiality of your research. Do you think this differs much in other countries, e.g. compared to your confidential relationship with the girls in Thailand?

Furthermore, it seems that various international laws have been consulted in order to gain official permission for this research. It would be interesting to know whether it was difficult to gain permission as well as whether it was difficult to convince the authorities of the importance of this research?

Kind regards,
Esmée

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Thank you for the work you continue to do in tackling the issue of child poverty.

My question is what is your opinion on the importance of government arrangements surrounding this issue? I know this may not be possible given each political climate, but in an ideal world say, could government intervention best help local communities to shape development in their area?

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After your experiences in the 'House of Plenty', you acknowledged that the approach you took could be applied in other regions as well. You mention that in Kenya the work was in conjunction with the community while in Uganda collaboration with the government was pursued.

How important according to you is it to modify your approach according to the local circumstances in a certain area? What can be generalised and therefore imitated at other places? In contrast, where do you see the need for modification?

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First of all, thank you for the wonderful work you are doing!

My questions are not so much related to the homeless' children situation on the African continent. Instead, I would like to raise the topic of the so called Moroccan street boys in Stockholm. It has been a highly mentioned topic in Sweden over the last couple of years, when youngsters from north African states flee to Sweden in hope of better lives. They are rejected a refugee status by Swedish authorities, and at the same time the state cannot return them back to their homeland. As a result the children are put in the Swedish shelters, where their basic needs and rights are met. However, most of them run away and consciously end up on the streets, abusing drugs and committing crimes.The situation quite similar to the one described in Kenya. Considering the fact, that SIDA is a Swedish organization, it seems quite odd for me that Swedish government fails providing protection and care for homeless children within its own territory.

I wonder what is your opinion about the situation? Is it so, that Swedish child shelters lack the right attitude and training, like the ones in Africa?

According to the newspapers, boys run away form the Swedish shelters because they need to pay back the debt they own to those who sponsored their illegal travel to Sweden. That is why they commit robberies. So how do we motivate these youngsters to stay in the shelters, by at the same time not geoparadizing their security?

Thank you!

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Thank you for your really impressive and precious work!

I am interested in education because poverty and education must have a relationship in a way that a certain degree of quality of life and financial aid is necessary for children to continue their study until they complete their study to some extent.

When it comes to education, people who are described on your paper or video would strongly appreciate the situation that they can have access to school, study tool such as computer and basic learning supplies. At the same time, there are people who take it for granted that children can receive fundamental education and  some of them don’t value study simply because they hate studying even if they can afford enough to receive good quality of education.

I just would like to ask what you think about such a difference of people’s attitude toward studying and the wide gap of opportunity to get access to education. (between developing and developed countries, for example)

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Thank you so much for such an interesting read, i am really excited to meet you next week.

As students from a class called 'actors and strategies for change' we all strive for change and have many different individual dreams of what we want to change in the world towards global sustainability.

I am wanting to know, when you realised you wanted change, how did you know where to start? What was the turning point where you realised you could actually make change possible?

I would love to hear any advice you could please give us about how or where to start when we have a dream of change...

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I am studying a program that includes learning to facilitate and am, therefore, interested in how the training which was mentioned in the clip abut ANnOC and also in your paper was arranged. The actors in the video talk about putting the blame on others in the beginning of the process and I was wondering which techniques were used to overcome this difficulty and how you managed to establish this persistent relationship between the actors.

Furthermore, I would like to hear your opinion about adoption of children from developing countries. Do you think this helps taking children out of poverty or does this support the trade with humans? If the latter, what kind of solution could there be?

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One of the things that I reacted to the most when reading your paper was the fact that the more organized and institutionalized homes for ”helping” these children turned out to often treat the children very poorly, and in fact in many cases perhaps did more harm than good. Instead, it seemed as though the more small-scale, local efforts were a lot more successful and handled the problem better (the soup kitchen, for example). How do we as a global community help children living on the streets when we can have so little faith in the institutions that are supposed to care for them and are easier to aid/fund?

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First of all, it has been really interesting reading about your work.

2 years ago I wrote an longer essay on integration of former child soldiers in DRC. In this I included a part about the school and how its construction can be problematic for children.

For example parents of girls, rightly so, is worried about letting their children go to school due to their security in the event of a war. Girls in a conflict is much more vulnerable than boys, as the risk of rape increases. Furthermore, there are often problems connecting to what life looks like for girls, which make it perceived as irrelevant, this in combination with their families need for them doing housework makes them stop going to school. How do you think this complex problem, which also includes patriarchy,  should be dealt with, and what changes is essential for the school system such as the one in DRC?

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Thanks for all the great work and insights you are sharing about these street children and the important work with the caregivers.

When reading about your work about the street children. One of the things that strikes me is that all the work is based on volunteers in the society where these children lives. I think is the most important that we should look after each other and help ANY child to grow as individual, finding their (healthy) path in life and make them feel part of the society.

# What are your thought around impact and importance off different actors to make change in the long terms? Individuals (family, neighbors and volunteers), industry, the local- and country government.

# What are your thoughts around preventing the children to get on the streets in the first place?

One reflection I have around this is that for about 100-150 years ago there were great poverty in Sweden and people fled the country. During these time families help each other and children was moved to others family members or acquaintance that could afford to provide for the child. There was different actors to support parents how struggled as temperance movements and church. Also the industry (LM-staden, Tallbacken, Nacka) did a lot to contribute to the society building apartments, nurseries, schools and recreation activities.

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Dear Wanjiku,

Reading your dissertation was impressive and thought-provoking. I am a psychology student, and I am interested in this sentence: “once children accepted you and felt “connected”, they did not lie about their lives.”  Was relinquishing your power as a researcher the biggest challenge in getting children to open up to you? Did you find any other aspects of communicating particularly challenging? When encountering resistant children, how do you go about ensuring these children receive the help they need without being coercive?

Furthermore, between the countries you have researched in, have you found cultural differences to be so significant that you had to change your methods? Or have you found similar methods and behaviours have the same effect on children despite cultural differences?

Thanks for your time and conducting such inspiring work!

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How much more attention to these issues do governments such as Sweden's need to have moving forward? So much of this work is carried out through the work of volunteers, but is there any way more work can be carried out by volunteers and governmental bodies in unison? How do we make people care more about this issue?

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I found your paper interesting in that it thoroughly broke down the problem in an organized way and provided a discussion of the results. One of the parts that stood out to me was the positive effects education can have on street children.
In one part of the video on the school in Uganda, the computer teacher was talking about how usually three students had to share one computer in class. The teacher was concerned there were not enough computers for the students. I was curious what you think could be done to continue to grow and enhance schools like the one in Uganda? Is it a matter of getting more funding or something else?

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It is interesting to know that you once worked and did some research in Thailand, since I’m Thai. Now, Thailand still face a problem of children working in the sex industry but I think the reason why they choose to be working in the sex industry have changed. In the past, Those people chose to be prostitutes because they don’t have money and maybe they have no choice since they are not educated. However, Today many people working in the sex industry are educated and also have money. The reason why they work in the sex industry is to fulfill their needs such as having a luxury life.

I would like to hear your opinion towards this and I’m wondering if there is a solution to eliminate this kind problem?

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I read and hear a lot about volunteering and charity work, when people from western countries such as Sweden or the US travel to for example Kenya to work with exposed children. Some of this work is well organised and thought through, but some of the organisations have been criticised to be shaped mainly for the volunteers to feel good about themselves and that the work they do don't really change anything, or in fact rather do harm than good.

I would really like to hear your thoughts about this. Could volunteer work be counterproductive, and if so, which volunteer work is good and helpful?

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Dear Wanjiku,

While reading your paper, I was consistently reminded of a course I took in my undergrad that dealt with the way we police youth, and society’s perception of “rebels” and “problem children”. In particular, I thought about the culture that youth create for themselves, the language and social rules by which they self-govern that are at times at odds with that of society, but which are very much necessary for them to survive among their peers—even more so among street kids who strongly rely on the support and/or respect of their peers.
There was one point when you mentioned briefly that one home, part of a faith-based organization, when failing to create rapport with the kids, would send them to the “Remand home, a governmental correctional centre for children and youth who are in conflict with the law”. Both in my previous course and from your paper, it seems apparent that it is a common problem that adults (and thus, often law-makers or institution directors) fail to acknowledge the agency of youth—this causes tensions that can lead to the incorrect and harmful categorization of youth as criminals.
I am curious if you had any experience with detention centers during your research, and generally, what your thoughts are on the increasing reliance on detention centers for youths? Additionally, do you think there is any opportunity or likelihood for cross-over in these areas, to train law-enforcement (both those deciding to incarcerate youth and those working in the centers) to be better equipped to work with youth? And finally, what are the options for reintroduction into society for such youth—are they generally accepted into homes and vocational programs, or are they largely condemned to life on the streets?

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It was so nice and impressive to learn more and reflect around all these factors regarding your training program and studies connecting children living in poverty shifting to a better and healthy environment. Poverty is without any doubts one of the most challenging issues that our modern society has to overcome nowadays. Thus, decreasing this problem through developing educational efforts and positive interactions between caregivers and street children its a great example of a sustainable solution. In this case, what do you think are the most challenging parts during the start of a new social/training program? And do you have some advices that might help people who intend to initiate a project in a poverty region (as Latin America for example)?

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As you point it out in your work, allowing the caregivers to see through the children's eyes has been beneficial to both parties and increases the effectiveness of the work of the caregivers. From my understanding, these results are obtained by allowing the children to take part in the decision making process and listening to their needs and desires. Moreover, educating children helped them develop a sens of accomplishment and meaning in society by giving them essential skills to function in it.

In contrast, it seems to me that the issue of child poverty is not addressed with a  similar mindset in many developed countries. In many ways, I feel like the decision power of children in these countries is quite limited when it comes to addressing their needs and that the sens of accomplishment coming from schoolwork appears to have vanished for certain individuals.

Do you think that the lessons and findings of your studies could very well be applied and be beneficial to other societies living very different constraints? Are there invariant guidelines that should be followed when it comes to the empowerment of youth living in poverty?

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There are many organistaions, both governal an non governal as well as private people who help children on the streets to get a better life.

I am wondering who is responsible for all street children? Is there someone who is more responsible than the other ?

I know that this question got many answers but I am curious to hear what your thoughts about this are.

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I found the reading about your work and your paper very interesting.
Education for every child is so very important.

It seems that the lack of enough money/funding is a big issue for school projects and mentioned by several in the videos. Is this the main challenge for these projects? Or can you also point to more structural changes (or other issues), which could be changed to prevent some of the issues i.e. children from ending up on the streets?

I'm looking forward to class on Monay and to meeting you.

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It's a pleasure to read about your work :).

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It's a pleasure to read about your work :).

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I'm reflecting about the contextual strategies that is mentioned in the article about the HOPE model as a social innovation (http://www.web.cemus.se/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/HOPE-Innovation-Model.pdf) . What are the current discussions topics in the scientific/entrepreneurial community regarding the contexual strategies for children in poverty?  Is there any research today that support one organisational model over another? Or just your personal experience?

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In the recent years it seems like in rich countries we have seen more and more volunteering projects. In those projects, regular people take from one week to several months of their time to flight to a poor country and help children with various actions (teaching, caring, preventing…).

To what extent do you think those actions are helpful or harmful?
Are there better alternatives for people from civil society who really want to help?

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Dear Wanjiku,

In the Swedish article “Forskaren som lärde sig att lyssna” I read that you wrote a letter to the Swedish Prime Minister of that time, Fredrik Reinfeldt, explaining that you believe the same method that is used to help the children in Kenya and Thailand, also could help children in similar situations in Sweden (in the suburb Husby for example. I suppose this was during the time of the riots that started in Husby during 2013?).
These children also lack trust in society and people that wants to help, but want to leave the situation they’re in.
The answer you got was that there were no financial support for your work or research from the government.

I was wondering how this made you feel. Do you think the government is not doing enough? That they could do more?

Or is it the hard working people fighting for these children, in organisations like yours, that is the most effective way to really make a change?

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So much thanks to your work and so many questions to you! So here are just a few!

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So much thanks to your work and so many questions to you! So here are just a few!

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A lot of your projects seem to stem from a problem that came from a certain setting that you stumbled upon. Sometimes it was even a mistake that you made. This make me think about a couple of questions:

1. Honesty and transparency in the misstakes you've made (with the two Kenyan boys for example) led to your own motivation and social change efforts! What are your biggest takeaways from mistakes you've made in your work?

Social questions are so complex and interesting because people work in networks, in the case of child poverty those networks are usually unsafe.

1. How do you convince children to stay in school? especially if that means choosing between working illegally, say with a powerful and dangerous gang or pimp, to earn enough money to eat/support his or her family vs. studying in school?

2. Does the Hope Vocational institution have any community partnerships? If so what are they and how do they work?

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Dear Wanjiku, thank you for your time.

The systems used and format in which the foundation is run reminds me of concepts from ‘nonviolent communication’ (by Marshall Rosenberg). You have spoken about how House of Plenty addresses the children’s needs, and highlight the importance of really listening.
How does the communication style used by the foundation differ from the other shelters, where the children did not feel well looked-after?

Secondly, have you noticed that children raised in this safe environment later want to give back and continue working to reduce the numbers of children living in unsafe or poor environments? Do you believe that your foundation contributes to an ongoing cycle and movement towards a decrease in poverty/prostitution/homelessness?

Another article (in Swedish) https://www.folkbildarforum.se/wanjiku-kaime-atterhog-forskning-socialt-arbete-och-entreprenorskap/

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I very much appreciate how your projects are developed in a sort of ”bottom up-approach” where you acknowledge that the people affected by a problem should be involved in the process of solving them.
How do you (and your teams) work with continuously incorporating the voices of the children into the programmes so that they are themselves a part of forming their future?

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House of Plenty Foundation- homepage (our story)

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House of Plenty Foundation- homepage (our story)

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http://www.houseofplenty.se/about-us.html

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In my understanding the key factor to empower children and preventing them from living on the streets is taking them to school and providing them with free education, so they can imagine what their future lives could be like in the first place.

Do you agree with me on that point or do you think there are other more important things, which have to be considered?
And secondly what can/has to be done to achieve, that more children are being able to actually visit schools?