ABSTRACT
Homelessness affects more than 100 million people
in the world (UNCHS 1996). It is projected that by
the year 2015, 53% of the developing world popu-
lation will live in cities (UNDP 2002). The rapidly
escalating num ber of street children in cities of
both developing and developed world is a matter
of grave concern (Wright 1993; Ayaya & Esamai
2001). A classification scheme outlined by United
Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
(UNICEF) is commonly used in international lit-
erature to differentiate homeless youth: youth on
the street’ refers to youth who engage in street-
based activities such as begging or peddling but
have a home base to return to, while youth of the
street’ have weaker ties to their families, and ‘aban-
doned youth5 have no connection to family at all
(Mufune 2000).
