A Child-Centered Ethnographic Study on the Street Careers of Children in Tondo, Manila

Graduate School of Social Sciences Research Master International Development Studies

Cover Pictures: Children playing and working in Tondo, Manila. (Source: Author)

MSc (Res) Thesis

A Child-Centered Ethnographic Study on the Street Careers of Children in Tondo, Manila

Charlotte Prenen Msc (Res) International Development Studies June 30th, 2017 Contact: [email protected]

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Thesis Supervision and Evaluation

Supervisor: Dr. Jacobijn Olthoff Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences University of Amsterdam Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, Amsterdam [email protected]

Second Reader: Dr. Yatun Sastramidjaja Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences University of Amsterdam Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, Amsterdam [email protected]

Abstract

Starting from a ‘street careers’ framework, this thesis studies the lives of children in street situations in Tondo, the Philippines. Although academic research on the lives of children in street situations is increasing, a gap persists between researcher’s interpretations and representations of children’s realities, and the heterogeneous ways that children understand their realities. Representations based on researchers’ interpretations often result in portraying children in street situations as one homogeneous group of children, posing the risk of the stigmatization and marginalization of all poor children on the street. To do justice to the heterogeneities in children’s lives, this thesis presents a ‘street careers’ framework with three pillars as building blocks: livelihoods, social identity, and life trajectories. Building on the three pillars, the empirical findings from the child-centered ethnographic research conducted in Tondo reveal substantial differences in how children experience livelihood activities and opportunities, and demonstrates how public opinion influences children’s social identity constructions differently. Furthermore, it became clear that in contrast to what the literature suggests, variations in children’s street careers are not persistently influenced through public’s opinion on children in street situations. In Tondo, it is often the lack of space in housing that ‘pushes’ children to the street, which explains the high number of children visible on the streets of Tondo today. This thesis emphasizes that children are unique, with individual needs, and experiences, which should be studied and taken into account when designing policy aiming to improve their well-being.

Keywords: Children in street situations; Street careers; Livelihoods; Social Identities; Life Trajectories; Tondo, Manila

Word count: 32461

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Visualization of Social Identity as the First Pillar in the ‘Street Careers’ Framework (Source: Author) ...... 13 Figure 2: Livelihoods as the second pillar in the ‘Street Careers’ Framework ...... 15 Figure 3: The ‘Street Careers’ Framework, with Life Trajectories as the third pillar ...... 18 Figure 4: Barangay 105, ‘Happy Land’ (Source: Author) ...... 26 Figure 5: Research Location Tondo, Manila (Source: Google Maps, TripAdvisor) ...... 27 Figure 6:Ethnographic Research Methods (Source: Author) ...... 31 Figure 7: An example of a Life Trajectory drawing ...... 33 Figure 8: JM and Chito looking for recyclable garbage in the garbage bags ...... 42 Figure 9 The garbage the boys collected that night…………… ...... 42 Figure 10: Treb cleaning bottles outside on the street ...... 44 Figure 11: Jezra cleaning bottles in front of her house ...... 44 Figure 12: Jane cooking rice for her and her family……… ...... Figure 13: Manilyn making the bed………………………...... 47 Figure 14: Life Trajectory Drawing Annalyn, 12...... 61 Figure 15: Elyo sleeping on a wooden table to take a break from his long work night. Figure 16: Treb sleeping on the street, holding and safeguarding his garbage...... 63 Figure 17: ‘Building’ two. The wall is the ‘entrance’ of the building. (Source: NGO Project Pearls) ...... 66 Figure 18: JM taking a nap when he is working during the night...... 79

Table of Contents Foreword ...... 1 Introduction...... 2 Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework ...... 5 Introduction ...... 5 1.1 The Social Exclusion of Children on the Street ...... 5 1.2 Implications of the Term ‘Street Children’ ...... 7 1.3 From Changing the Term to Changing the Approach in Studying the Lives of Children in Street Situations ...... 9 Social Identity Constructions of Children in Street Situations ...... 10 Livelihood and Survival Strategies on the Streets ...... 13 Life Trajectories of Children in Street Situations ...... 15 1.4 Research Questions ...... 19 Chapter 2: Research Context ...... 21 Introduction ...... 21 2.1 Socio-Economic Context of the Philippines ...... 21 2.2 Challenges of Children in Street Situations in the Philippines ...... 22 2.3 Policies on ‘Street Children’ in the Philippines ...... 23 2.4 Manila and Tondo ...... 25 2.5 Bahay Tuluyan: A Child’s Rights Organization ...... 27 Chapter 3: Research Methodology ...... 29 Introduction ...... 29 3.1 Ontological Position ...... 29 3.2 Research Methods ...... 30 Semi-Structured Interviews ...... 31 Participant Observation ...... 32 Life Trajectories Drawings ...... 32 Digital Storytelling Projects ...... 33 Focus Groups ...... 34 3.3 Sampling ...... 34 3.4 Ethical Considerations ...... 35 3.5 Limitations ...... 36 Chapter 4: Introducing the Children of Tondo and their Survival Strategies ...... 38 Introduction ...... 38 4.1 Introducing the Children of Tondo ...... 39 4.2 Surviving on the Streets of Tondo ...... 40 4.3 Work Activities of Children in Street Situations in Tondo ...... 42 4.4 Age and Livelihood Activities and Opportunities...... 44 4.5 Gendered Livelihoods ...... 46

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Concluding Remarks ...... 49 Chapter 5: Social Identity Constructions on the Streets of Tondo ...... 50 Introduction ...... 50 5.1 Social Relationships of Children in Street Situations in Tondo ...... 50 Peers ...... 51 Family ...... 52 5.2 The Possible Relation between Public Perceptions on ‘Street Children’ and Children’s Identity Constructions ...... 55 5.3 Differences and Similarities between the Perspectives of Children and Social Scientists on Social Identities Constructions on the Street...... 57 Concluding Remarks ...... 59 Chapter 6: Life Trajectories of Children in Street Situations in Tondo ...... 60 Introduction ...... 60 6.1 Ways to ‘Enter’ Street Life in Tondo ...... 60 6.2 Daily Life on the Street: Leisure, Drugs, Violence ...... 64 Leisure: playing games ...... 64 Drugs: Pushing and Using Rugby ...... 65 (In)Security in Tondo: Violence, Police, Drug Addicts ...... 67 6.3 Ways of ‘Exiting’ the Street ...... 69 Government Child Protection Policies: ‘Sagip Kalinga’ ...... 70 Non-Governmental Policies and Practices Targeting Children in Street Situations in Tondo ...... 72 Concluding Remarks ...... 74 Chapter 7: Conclusions, Contributions, and Recommendations ...... 75 7.1 Conclusions ...... 75 7.2 Empirical Contributions of the Thesis ...... 78 Recommendations for Policymakers in Tondo ...... 79 7.3 Theoretical Contributions of Thesis ...... 81 Recommendations for Academics Aiming to study the Lives of Children in Street Situations ...... 82 References: ...... 83 Appendices ...... 92 Appendix A: List of All Respondents ...... 92 Appendix B: Interview Guide Children ...... 96 Appendix C: Interview Guide NGO-Employees ...... 98

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Foreword

Before entering one of the most underdeveloped and poorest areas of the Philippines, I tried to imagine how I could ever get close to children who are supposedly using drugs, stealing, in need of help, or trying to take advantage of me. The moment I stepped foot in Tondo, these stereotypes were shattered. None of the stereotypes fit the children I met in Tondo, and none of these representations even came close to capturing their experiences. I was able to get close to the children in Tondo because what these children wanted was someone who listened to them, someone who was interested in their experiences and realities, someone who listened to them completely. With the inhumane and unhealthy living conditions in Tondo, the garbage that was everywhere I looked, and the lack of basic facilities for almost all people who live there, I was surprised by the positive feeling I got from the place. There is one sentence written on many walls in Tondo, Tondo Man May Langit Din. The positive energy of the children is what, for me, symbolizes this sentence, which translates into - Even in Tondo there is a Heaven. I first and foremost want to thank all children who participated in this research, the children from whom I have learned so much.

Secondly, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to ‘Mommy Cell’ and ‘Mother Risa’, my interpreter who became my great friend throughout my months in Tondo, and my Filipino ‘mother’ who offered me a place to stay in Tondo and cooked food for me every day. Without their help and friendship of both laughter and crying, I would not have been able to conduct my research in Tondo as such.

I would thirdly like to thank my supervisor, Jacobijn Olthoff. Throughout this entire process, her constructive feedback and dedication to helping me motivated me to work as hard as I did. Her detailed feedback and words of advice were incredibly valuable to the development of my thesis, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with her.

Finally, I want to thank my friends, my boyfriend, and my family who supported me throughout the writing process and, most importantly, during my time in the field. I am grateful for their unconditional love and support, and for always believing in me.

Introduction

While there is no international agreement on the definition of the term ‘street children’, it is estimated that tens of millions of children around the world are living and working on the street (UNICEF, 2012). The phenomenon of ‘street children’ continues to grow due to population growth, intensifying urbanization, increasing migration, and an inadequacy of policy and social action to prevent this phenomenon (KidsRights, 2012; Conticini, 2005). This growing issue makes it hardly surprising that scholars have studied the lives of children on the street extensively.

Publications in academic literature have emphasized the scale of the problem around the world, have outlined the identifying characteristics of children in street situations, have sought to explain root causes of the phenomenon, and have documented the consequences of a street lifestyle for children’s health and development (Panter-Brick, 2002). From such publications, it became clear that children are pushed into living and working on the streets due to many factors such as poverty, family dysfunction, domestic abuse, or the idea that freedom can be found on the streets (Hulme & Conticini, 2006; Butler, 2009). Once on the street, children are exposed to many threats and challenges. Some of the most pressing challenges include difficulties in accessing health services and in maintaining basic health, exposure to violence and abuse, exploitation, no access to shelter, and dangerous working conditions (KidsRights, 2012).

From studies on the lives of children in street situations, it became clear that there is a gap between children’s heterogeneous understandings of their experiences and realities, and the ways adults and researchers interpret, describe, and represent children’s experiences and realities (de Benítez, 2011; Conticini, 2008; Whitehead et al, 2008). Researchers create a category of children in street situations with certain characteristics and experiences based on their interpretations and give insufficient attentiveness to children’s voices about their realities (de Benítez, 2011). This has three important consequences. First, according to de Moura (2002), a ‘street children’ category draws heavily on moral values and the conception of an isolated street society. Labeling children as ‘street children’ presents the risk of stigmatization of all poor children living and working on the street, and the risk of perpetuating their social exclusion (de Moura, 2002). Second, in addition to the risk of stigmatization and social exclusion, most studies focusing on the lives of children in street situations refer to them, erroneously, as one homogeneous group of marginalized children (de Benítez, 2007). Such portrayals are in danger of ignoring children’s agency because, in

reality, children on the street are not a clearly defined, homogenous population. The use of the street by the children is ‘fluid, depending on his or her age, gender and experience’ (Ray et al, 2011: 8). Third, the way the concept of ‘street children’ is constructed reflects various social and political agendas (Panter-Brick, 2002). According to de Moura, the social construction of street children does not favor comprehensive practices, but ‘inspires interventions which sustain the status quo of inequalities’ (2002; 362). In order words, the socially constructed, homogeneous and stigmatized representations of children in street situations may be used to support disputable actions that perpetuate life on the street (de Moura, 2002).

To diminish the gap between children’s realities and adults’ interpretations, and to contest the homogenizing stigmas surrounding children in street situations, researchers have emphasized the need to include children’s participation in studies about their lives (Oh, 2012; de Benítez, 2011; Young & Barrett, 2001). Ethnographic and participatory methods in empirical studies are increasingly used to explore meanings of children’s experiences on the streets. Such participatory ethnographic studies cover the varied aspects of life on the street such as survival strategies (Conticini, 2005), reasons to ‘enter’ life on the street (Karabanow, 2006), influence of gender, age and ethnicity (Evans, 2006), and processes of moving between home and street (Ursin, 2013). Although these studies provide some information on the aspects of children’s lives, an approach on how to comprehensively study the heterogeneous experiences and realities of children in different street situations remains absent.

In the context of the Philippines, repeated concern has been expressed by the United Nations about the large number of children living and working on the streets (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2009). A lot of work is currently undertaken by non-government organizations (NGOs) and government organizations to improve the lives of children in street situations in the country. These organizations categorize children in street situations as children under the age of 18 for whom ‘the street’, including unoccupied dwellings and wasteland, has become home and/or their source of livelihood, and who are inadequately protected or supervised (KidsRights, 2012). By categorizing children in street situations as such, there remains little to no recognition of the diversities and individualities in children’s lives. It is here that we see an interesting parallel with how literature tends to conceptualize ‘street children’ as a homogeneous, marginalized group of children who lack agency and a voice in navigating their own futures.

To do justice to the heterogeneities in experiences and realities of children in street situations such as in the Philippines, I developed a ‘street careers’ framework that offers an approach to comprehensively study the lives of children on the street from their own perspectives. The

development of the ‘street careers’ framework enables to move beyond studying solely snapshot descriptions of children’s lives towards gaining more contextual and in-depth information about the lives of children on the street. This thesis demonstrates the theoretical development of the ‘street careers’ framework and its three main pillars as building blocks: social identity, livelihoods, and life trajectories. The pillars of the ‘street careers’ framework together allowed me to empirically study the lives of the children in street situations in Tondo, the Philippines in a comprehensive manner.

With this thesis I aim to make two contributions. On the one hand, it aims to make an empirical contribution in offering policymakers in Tondo a greater understanding of the heterogeneous realities and experiences of children in street situations. On the other hand, by developing the ‘street careers’ framework, this thesis aims to make a theoretical contribution to scholarly understanding by presenting a comprehensive approach to study the lives of children in street situations that is applicable in other, comparable contexts.

Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework

Introduction As was described in the introduction, this thesis has two main objectives. First, it aims to gain and present a greater understanding of the lives of the children on the streets of Tondo, and second, it aims to develop a framework how to study lives of children in street situations in different, but comparable contexts. To achieve these two objectives, this thesis starts with a theoretical chapter that develops the ‘street careers’ framework, a framework which gives justice to the heterogeneous experiences and realities of children in street situations. Prior to the development of the ‘street careers’ framework, this chapter starts with a section that critically analyzes the marginal position of children in street situations in current development discourses. In this section, influential studies on ‘street children’ will be discussed in light of the social exclusion paradigm, demonstrating how most current discourses refer to these children, erroneously, as one homogeneous group of marginalized children. Furthermore, implications of the term ‘street children’ will be discussed, followed by an argumentation on why there is a need to refer to them as ‘children in street situations’. The following sections develop the ‘street careers’ framework. These sections present the three main pillars as building blocks of the framework: social identities, livelihoods, and life trajectories. The chapter concludes with the presentation of the research questions and an outline of the coming chapters.

1.1 The Social Exclusion of Children on the Street Over the last few decades, social scientists shifted the approach in studying the lives of children. Where children were predominantly seen as ‘incomplete adults’ that socialize into adult society, sociologists like James, Jenks, and Prout (2001; 1998; 1997) convincingly argued for studying children as active agents who are capable of making their own decisions, as social ‘beings’ rather than ‘becomings’. Children became recognized as worth studying through themselves and for themselves, “regardless of the adults’ viewpoints and preoccupations” (Prout and James, 1997, p.8). This new childhood studies, in short, views childhood as a social construction, understood in different ways in different cultures and societies and at different times.

The idea of childhood as a social construction in itself is not new. In 1962, Ariès already brought this to the attention in his influential work Centuries of Childhood where he argued that in pre-modernity the concept of childhood was non-existent. According to Ariès, childhood only emerged as a valued phenomenon afterward. Ariès’ statement led many

5 historians to object his visions, as critics argue that the Middle Ages did have a concept of childhood, not perhaps the same as in later centuries, but a concept nonetheless (Cunningham, 2005). Despite such objections, more recently, scholars argued that Ariès’ observations do have a core of truth, and are fruitful as an interesting idea (Qvortrup, 2005; Jenks, 2004). For example, the often cited scholar Qvortrup (2005) builds the ideas of Ariès and states that in modern society children belong to the private family, retreated from the openness of public society. He argues that by losing legitimate visibility in public, children are socially excluded from the dominant sectors of the social world like business and labor, urban areas, and political sectors, which all became characteristics for adults (Qvortrup. 2005). Children’s exclusion from urban areas, labor and other dominant sectors of the social world is particularly relevant when discussing the lives of children who spend most of their time working and living on the street in urban areas.

A strand of research that is relevant for studying the lives of children in street situations is research that links the phenomenon of ‘street children’ to the contexts of marginalization and social exclusion (see for example Stodulka, 2017; Ursin, 2016; de Benítez, 2011; Ataov & Haider, 2006; Beazley, 2003; Evans, 2006; Nieuwenhuys, 2001; Panter-Brick, 2002; Stephenson, 2001). In his recent book, Stodulka (2017) presents the results of his five-year ethnographic study on marginality and stigma of children on the streets of Java and accurately illustrates how stigmatization and marginalization of persons are closely related to each other. According to Stodulka (2017; 24), a stigma can be identified when particular ‘others’ are distinguished and labeled as ‘different’, which is often associated with negative attributes, as ‘they’ are separated from ‘us’ and ‘they’ are finally stigmatized. He argues that discourses influence the ways that street-related children deal with these marginal social conditions, making the positioning of ‘street children’ deeply political.

In 2001, Nieuwenhuys already observed the influence of discourse on the marginalization of children on the street. She argued that the term ‘street children’ was forged as ‘a category of discourse construed around the children of the poor’ (551). The underlying presuppositions of the term accommodate the idea of curing societies of ‘street children’ who are displaying socially unacceptable behavior, thereby portraying these children as a problem outside of ‘mainstream society’ (Nieuwenhuys, 2001). More recent studies from Benoit et al. (2008) and Ursin (2016) build further on the idea of discursive marginalization of children on the street. According to Benoit et al. (2008) literature on ‘street children’ runs the risk of homogenizing these groups of children in an attempt to demonstrate their marginal position within society. Correspondingly, Ursin (2016) argues how discourses on ‘street children’ create an understanding of the ‘other’ as homogeneous social groupings who are excluded from

mainstream society. This exclusion greatly influences the ways that these (groups of) children are encountered, defined and debated, and how this impacts their everyday lives, experiences, and livelihoods (Ursin, 2016). In short, discourses on childhood, and in this case on ‘street children’, have the ability to naturalize the stigmatization, marginalization, and homogenization this group of children based on their lacking opportunities, skills, and access to resources (Nieuwenhuys, 2001; de Moura, 2002; Glauser, 2015; Stodulka, 2017).

1.2 Implications of the Term ‘Street Children’ In the previous section, a start was made with critically analyzing literature on the social exclusion of children, particularly of children on the street. In this section, I will zoom in on the specific label often used for these children, i.e. ‘street children’, and show why this label does not accurately capture most of these children’s social realities. The phenomenon ‘street children’ has been the focus of academic interest and welfare concern for over two decades. Since its inception, the term ‘street children’ has been used to refer to different children in a variety of circumstances, showing no consensus on definitions of this group of children (de Benítez, 2011; Aptekar & Heinonen, 2003; Ennew, 2003). The definition of ‘street children’ is contested, above all in its implicit claim to capture in one blow the reality of millions of children throughout the world. UNICEF made several attempts to broadly define this group of children, and refers to ‘street children’ ‘as boys and girls aged under 18 for whom 'the street' (including unoccupied dwellings and wastelands) has become home and/or their source of livelihood, and who are inadequately protected or supervised by responsible adults’ (UNICEF, 2007). This definition by UNICEF illustrates an attempt to capture the diverse social realities of children in various street situations, and many practitioners and policymakers refer to this definition when categorizing and defining children on the street. Yet, by categorizing children on the street as such, there remains little to no recognition of the diversities and individualities in children’s lives.

Social researchers Glauser (2015), de Moura (2002), de Benítez (2011), and Panter-Brick (2002), powerfully criticize the term ‘street children’. Drawing on their insights, I illustrate three crucial implications of the term ‘street children’. First, as was briefly mentioned in the introduction, referring to children as ‘street children’ tends to homogenize the lives of all children on the street (Panter-Brick, 2002). Consequently, the representation of ‘street children’ obscures the heterogeneity in children’s experiences and the diversities in children’s lives on the street, which vary from context to context, from group to group and from individual to individual. Homogenizing the lives of children on the streets furthermore easily contributes to the stigmatization and social exclusion of all poor families and children on the street (de Moura, 2002). Children on the streets are often stigmatized and ‘presumed to be

offenders, even when there is no offense; drug addicts, even if they never used drugs; and “vagrants”, even if they work hard’ (Rosenblatt, 2014; 21).

Second, where the label ‘street children’ was originally adopted by international agencies to avoid negative overtones for children who had been known as vagrants, rag-pickers, and glue- sniffers, scholars later suggested that the term ‘street children’ does still have powerful negative emotional overtones (de Benítez, 2011; Panter-Brick, 2002; Aptekar, 1988). In a study on children on the streets of Colombia, Aptekar (1988) argues that the term ‘street children’ evokes conflicting emotions of disapproval, disgust, and pity among the public. Although Aptekar’s study was conducted almost three decades ago, recent scholars still build on his insights. In recent literature, ‘street children’ are continuously portrayed as a socially undesirable group of children. There are two, somewhat contradictory, stereotypes of ‘street children’. On the one hand, a ‘street child’ is seen as a victim and is thus more likely to be treated as a passive object of welfare, rather than a person with his or her rights. On the other hand, there is a picture of a young male, engaged in substance abuse and delinquency. Both these assumptions place ‘street children’ outside of normal life courses of children and assume that children should not work or live on the street (Ursin, 2016; de Benítez, 2011; Benoit et al., 2008; Evans, 2006; Glauser, 2015).

Third, ‘street children’ are easily represented as the symbol of poverty and social exclusion (Panter-Brick, 2002). According to de Moura (2002), presenting children as ‘street children’, alienated from mainstream society, inspires interventions aimed at improving the conditions of an ‘outsider’, rather than the development of long-term and comprehensive support for ‘excluded’ insiders. Some interventions sustain the status quo of social inequalities and possibly ‘perpetuate life on the street’ (de Moura, 2002; 362).

Based on the implications of the appellation ‘street children’, the search for a definition or term that adequately represents children on the street as children who have heterogeneous realities and experiences, who are not stigmatized, and who are perceived as ‘included’ in mainstream society, continues. ‘Children in situations of risk’ and ‘Children in Need of Special Protection’ are emerging terms, which conceptualize ‘street children’ as one of a number of groups most at risk and requiring urgent attention (UNICEF, 2010; Butler, 2009). Such terms do not demarcate ‘street children’ radically from other poor children. Yet, for children for whom the street is a reference point, I believe this is not a good suggestion. For them, it is important to adopt a more inclusive operational understanding of children on the street. Therefore, throughout this thesis, ‘street children’ are referred to as ‘children in street situations’, an appellation which is agreed upon by the Children’s Rights Council in Brazil

(Rizzini, 2011). Referring to children as such emphasizes that the issue here is not the ‘street child’ or the group of ‘street children’, but the situation causing the child to be in the street. It opens up an approach that recognizes that children’s realities on the street vary greatly. Furthermore, it is built on the idea that these realities should be characterized by and with the involvement of the children who experience them, rather than by other people doing this on their behalf (Terre des Hommes, 2014). In this respect, identifying diverse situations and experiences on the street seems more relevant than identifying what one would call ‘street children’ (Aptekar & Stoecklin, 2014). Hence, this thesis refers to ‘street children’ as ‘children in street situations’.

1.3 From Changing the Term to Changing the Approach in Studying the Lives of Children in Street Situations So far it has become clear why there is a need to refer to children on the street generally as ‘children in street situations’. Referring to children in this manner moves beyond portraying this group of children as a homogeneous group by emphasizing diversities in experiences of different children in different situations. Yet, changing the way of referring to children on the street is only a first step. It raises further questions as to which theoretical concepts and insights are useful for adequately studying the lives of such children and it asks for an exploration of the methodological building blocks useful for doing so. This is where the concept of the ‘street career’ comes in, and as a following step, a comprehensive ‘street careers’ framework with which the heterogeneous realities and experiences of children on the street can be adequately analyzed.

When developing a ‘street careers’ framework for studying the lives of children in street situations, it is first of relevance to investigate where the basic concepts were originated. The concept of a ‘street career’ emerged when the notion of a ‘career’, as originally espoused by Goffman’s (1961) in his study on social deviance, was applied to children on the street. Essentially, Goffman’s (1961) concept of a ‘career’ refers to the progression of related experiences and identity changes in particular settings over time. The concept of a ‘career’ then, ‘allows one to move back and forth between the personal and the public, between agency and social structures, and between the self and its significant society’ (Goffman, 1961; 127). In other words, a ‘career’ is bound up with social identities and social roles as well as with wider societal definitions of how these deviants should behave (Goffman, 1961). It is a progression from one set of social identities and social roles to another and has ‘implications for a person’s subjective sense of self as well as for their objective behavior’ (O’Brien & Yar, 2008; 38).

In applying Goffman’s concept of a ‘career’ to children in street situations and studying their lives as ‘street careers’, this thesis is not unique. In fact, Visano (1990; 142), among others, has illustrated how applying the concept of a ‘street career’ offers a useful tool for exploring children’s ‘activities and relationships attendant with street socialization, and the various stages of assimilation to street life’ (ibid). The ‘street career’ concept was later linked to time and age (Evans, 2006; Ennew & Swart-Kruger, 2003; Beazley, 2003); to movements between home and street (Aptekar & Heinonen, 2003), to social skills, subcultural norms and values (Stephenson, 2001) and to temporality (Stodulka, 2017). What becomes clear from studies on children’s ‘street careers’ is that appraising children’s lives as a career prevents solely studying aspects of children’s lives. It requires one to move beyond snapshot descriptions of children and calls for data giving both time-depth and contextual information (Panter-Brick, 2002). Furthermore, studying children’s lives as careers does justice to children’s individual agency, and recognizes that children are active in shaping their own destinies (Karabanow, 2004). Despite the shared understandings about the value of ‘street careers’ concept in general, scholars have not yet completely agreed upon a definition of the concept of a ‘street career’, and a comprehensive approach how to study lives as ‘street careers’ is still lacking.

This thesis takes a step further by using the ambiguous but valuable ‘street careers’ concept to develop a ‘street careers’ framework. In this way, justice is done to the value of the ‘street careers’ concept and a unique and new comprehensive approach in studying the lives and experiences of children on the street is offered. Building on the basic concepts of a ‘career’ and a ‘street career’, I have found three pillars that uphold the ‘street careers’ framework: social identity, livelihoods, and life trajectories. Throughout the following sections, I will elaborate further on each of the three pillars individually, and will illustrate how together they allow gaining in-depth knowledge on children’s heterogeneous lives and realities.

Social Identity Constructions of Children in Street Situations The first pillar that upholds the framework is the concept of social identity. In his study on children’s street careers, Visano (1990) introduced ‘street career’ concept as a concept which can help appraise for children the long-term outcomes of social experiences and negotiated social identities on the street. Other, more recent scholars, used social identity as a central aspect when studying children’s ‘street careers’ (Evans, 2006; Panter-Brick, 2002; Stodulka, 2017). Children create certain identities on the streets as a response to their stigmatization and as a solution to the problems they face in a world that is generally hostile to their existence (Beazley, 2003). Studying the social identities of children on the streets makes it possible to analyze processes by which children construct their identities over time on the street, and how wider society influences these constructions (Evans, 2006).

An important strand of research for the development of the first pillar is research that links the concept of a street career to children’s social identity constructions (Karabanow, 2006; Evans, 2006; Beazley, 2003). In the simplest terms, peoples’ complex and fluid identities can be understood as the characteristics that make an individual distinct from others as well as those that make an individual a recognizable member of a social group (Beazley, 2003). When linking the concept of social identity to street careers, the children’s multiple and fluid identities of in street situations change depending on different circumstances and on the various relationships they possess (Ennew & Swart-Kruger, 2002).

More scholars have highlighted the link between relationships of children in street situations on the one hand and their identity constructions and negotiations on the other. For instance, renowned researcher Maclure in his article with Sotelo (2014) on children on the streets of Nicaragua demonstrated how identities of children are shaped by their personal relationships with peers and families, and by their socialization within permanent social groupings such as family and school. Social relationships are mentioned as relevant because where children have supportive relations, they are usually able to benefit from the social capital generated from these relationships (Barker, 2012; Holland et al., 2007). From the numerous definitions and understandings social capital, current study primarily builds on Bourdieu’s (1985) definition and analysis. Bourdieu describes social capital as a way of looking at individuals as agents in various social positions who are able to sustain their place in the system of social inequality, through the way they use social networks and connections. His analysis examines the advantages derived from participation in groups and the mobilization of social ties as a resource (Bourdieu, 1985).

According to Maclure and Sotelo (2014), for children who live in circumstances of poverty, there is limited availability of social capital, and sparse opportunities for social capital formation. A lack of social capital leaves marginalized children, such as children in street situations, susceptible to risks which could undermine their development. To overcome these risks, children are looking for trustworthy and reliable social ties that will help to yield structural and social capital and will play a significant role in contributing to life chances and well-being of children in street situations (Maclure & Sotelo, 2014). The authors identified two types of social capital that are particularly relevant in a child’s identity development on the street: affective assets and structural assets. The former are intrinsic and include perceptions and feelings such as self-esteem, friendships that are built up through social relationships and trust, and the latter consists of tangible resources such as skills, material goods, knowledge and additional social connections. Both types of assets are socially

generated and connect relationships of children in street situations with the opportunities that are available to them (Maclure & Sotelo, 2014).

An accurate example of the importance of social capital to identity development in children’s street careers is evident in Beazley’s (2003) study on the construction of identities on the streets of Indonesia. In her study, Beazley illustrates the importance of street boys’ socialization into a ‘street identity’. She uses Visano’s (1990) concept of a street career and argues that socializing into a series of norms, ideals, group processes and codes of ethics on the street are necessary in order to follow a successful career (Beazley, 2003). With this identification of a social ‘street identity’, children are expected to adopt particular attitudes, perspectives, and values. According to Beazley, these values include principles of solidarity, individual survival, independence and freedom, work hierarchies, unique attitudes to life on the street and the understanding of street codes. Adopting these attitudes and values, supportive networks, coping strategies and relationships in the absence of parents contribute in developing a social identity, a collective identity from which to define an individual identity that helps to redefine negative self-concepts (Beazley, 2003).

When establishing the concept of social identity as the first pillar in the ‘street careers’ framework, it is important to recognize that constructions of identity are not only related to the forms and assets of social capital that children generated from their relationships. According to Karabanow (2006), especially in constructing identity, children in street situations are highly aware of how others perceive them. Through public discourse an assumption on ‘street children’ is created, built on the idea that children on the street are ‘out of place’ (Ursin, 2016; 4). This assumption results in the stereotypical representations of on the one hand children on the street as ‘victims’ in need of help and on the other hand as ‘delinquents’ and a threat to society (Butler, 2009; de Benítez, 2011). As a result of such unrealistic stereotypes, children on the street are often discriminated against and treated with prejudice (Ursin, 2013). This context of prejudice and discrimination, and here we come back to the main issue of current study i.e. children’s street careers, in turn, has an influence on how children behave and construct their identities on the street (de Benítez, 2011; Karabanow, 2006).

In short, this section established social identity as the first pillar of the ‘street careers’ framework. Building on the insights of Maclure and Sotelo (2014), this section illustrated the importance of ties and relationships to children in street situations. It demonstrated the relevance if studying how these relationships constitute relevant assets that have the opportunity to play a significant role in the identity construction in children’s street careers.

Furthermore, it raised the question how identity constructions of children on the street are impacted by the public’s opinion on ‘street children’. Studying children’s social identity constructions in this way offers the first step in exploring the heterogeneities in the careers of children in street situations. Figure one visualizes the first pillar of the ‘street careers’ framework.

STREET CAREERS

Social Identity

Public Perception

Figure 1: Visualization of Social Identity as the First Pillar in the ‘Street Careers’ Framework

Livelihood and Survival Strategies on the Streets In the ‘street careers’ framework, the second pillar is livelihoods. For children in street situations, livelihood strategies and opportunities have been explicitly associated with a child’s social identity (Beazley, 2003). As a response to the (often negative) public’s opinion about ‘street children’, children in street situations need to be highly sophisticated in creating complex ways to promote, protect and secure their livelihoods (Conticini, 2005). How children use available resources to make a living and how this is related to public’s opinion is critical when studying children’s lives as a street career, as this contributes to the understanding how these children survive in different complex situations on the street (Trent & Kotze, 2009). The concept of livelihoods constitutes the second pillar in the ‘street careers’ framework, and offers the next step towards providing a coherent understanding of children’s lives and experiences on the street.

In academic research, studies emphasized children’s increasing age as an important factor in influencing the livelihood activities and opportunities of children in street situations (Evans, 2006; de Benítez, 2011; Beazley, 2003; Aptekar, 1988; Ennew & Swart-Kruger, 2003). Scholars found that children transition into various livelihood forms and activities, in response to both personal development that is related to a child’s increasing age, and in response to a transformation in public perceptions on ‘street children’ (de Benítez, 2011; Beazley, 2003; Aptekar, 1989; Ennew & Swart-Kruger, 2003). To illustrate, according to

Aptekar, street children in Colombia were considered cute and economically viable before they reached puberty. Once these street children reached puberty, public perception of their presence shifted towards perceiving children as thugs and a threat to society, and children had to change the ways they earned their livelihoods on the street (Aptekar, 1988). The conclusion of Aptekar’s (1988) study, together with those of other scholars (see, for example, Evans; 2006; Rizzini & Butler, 2003; Beazley, 2003; de Benítez, 2011; Ennew & Swart-Kruger, 2003), suggest that livelihood opportunities and strategies of children in street situations are related to getting and visibly looking older in both age and size, together with a decrease in public tolerance of children’s presence on the streets.

In addition to age, it is argued that gender is also an important characteristic which is related to children’s livelihood activities and opportunities on the street (Evans, 2006; Ray et al., 2011; Beazley, 2002; van Blerk, 2005). According to Beazley (2002), girls earn their money in a different way than boys do. Traditionally, girls are kept close to home in most of the world’s cultures due to family responsibilities, their own protection and because of child-care. On the contrary, men and boys are generally encouraged to go be independent and to go outside to earn a living (Coren et al., 2013; Evans, 2006; Beazley, 2002; van Blerk, 2006; Rafaelli et al., 2000). This separation of places for boys and girls leads to the belief that girls in street situations are more ‘out of place’ than boys, resulting in a doubly marginal position compared to boys in livelihood opportunities on the street (Beazley, 2002).

According to van Blerk (2006), it is important to study the significance of age and gender, not to generalize experiences to other boys and girls, but as a different lens through which we can continue to more fully understand the lives and experiences of children in street situations. Children are individuals with their own agency. It is important to investigate children's livelihood activities related to their age and gender, as this are, although socially constructed, characteristics of children. Studying children’s livelihoods as such allows highlighting individual personalities and preferences in the ways children survive on the street (van Blerk, 2006).

In short, this section illustrated the second pillar that I have found to uphold the ‘street careers’ framework: livelihoods. Livelihood opportunities and strategies of children in street situations are related to a child’s age and gender, and the changing public opinion. Once a child ages into youth, thereby visibly looking older in age and size, his or her livelihood activities and opportunities change. As regard to gender, girls are doubly marginalized as they are frequently perceived as ‘being the “wrong” gender in the “wrong” place’ (Skelton, 2000; 80). How children use available resources to survive on the street and how this is influenced

14 by the public’s opinion and a child’s age and gender is critical when studying children’s lives as street careers, as this contributes to the understanding how children survive in different complex situations on the street (Trent & Kotze, 2009) It offers the next step in exploring the heterogeneous lives of children in street situations more comprehensively. Figure two illustrates livelihoods as the second pillar in the ‘street careers’ framework.

STREET CAREERS

Social Liveli- Identity hoods

Public Perception – Age – Gender

Figure 2: Livelihoods as the second pillar in the ‘Street Careers’ Framework

Life Trajectories of Children in Street Situations So far, social identity and livelihood are the first two pillars that uphold the ‘street careers’ framework. In addition to these two pillars as building blocks in the framework, several authors suggest that also the concept of life trajectories is particularly useful in research on children’s lives on the street as this draws attention to theorizations of age and brings in processes of temporality (Evans, 2006; Hockey & James, 2003; James, Jenks & Prout, 1998). The idea of including life trajectories as the third pillar in the framework is to divide the life course of children in street situations into complementary parts, which are not necessary linear or standardized (Hockey & James, 2003). By doing so, justice is done to temporality, fluidity and diversity of children’s experiences in different trajectories in their street careers.

Studying life trajectories of children in street situations is important because it allows studying the movement of children over time and through temporal phases of life in street careers pathways (Evans, 2006). This is important because, according to Stodulka (2017), the temporality and fluidity of children’s street careers of children in street situations have not been systematically addressed in anthropological studies. This is remarkable, considering that the fluidity of experiences on the street has been acknowledged repeatedly (Ray et al., 2011; Aptekar & Heinonen, 2003; de Benítez, 2007). By establishing life trajectories as the third

15 pillar in the ‘street careers’ framework, the framework offers an approach to address the fluidity and temporality in children’s experiences.

To examine the different complementary parts of children’s temporal life on the street, Rizzini and Butler (2003) roughly divide children’s life course into three main trajectories: socializing onto the street, daily life on the street, and leaving or ‘exiting’ the street. Although these are relevant for children in different situations, I believe their study inadequately accounts for differences within the trajectories. Rizzini and Butler (2003) tend to homogenize trajectories of children in different street situations and are doing insufficient justice to their agency. Karabanow (2006) provides a complementary view on children’s life trajectories in his study on children’s street careers in Toronto. He shed light on children’s attitudes and experiences as they move through the different stages of street life. He puts great emphasis on children’s agency and approaches their lives in a non-deterministic way that translates negative turning points in life into a deviant ‘street-world’ (Karabanow, 2006; 51). Far from being passive and dependent, Karabanow (2006) sees children as active agents in their own street careers and accurately studies how children move towards and away from street life.

The theoretical perspectives of Karabanow’s (2006) and Rizzini and Butler’s (2003) are two central views in the life trajectories pillar of the ‘street careers’ framework. To explore experiences surrounding the trajectory of moving towards street life, one could start by studying the context of the family and the reasons for leaving home to the street environment. As already studied extensively, the street offers for some a sense of amusement, escape from violence or an opportunity for independence when this does not exist within the context of the family (Karabanow, 2014; de Benítez, 2011; Butler, 2009). Children who move to the street could be rejecting kinship relations and household structures (Evans, 2006). ‘Choosing the street’ should be understood within the context of poverty and social structures, as well as individual circumstances (Karabanow, 2006).

According to Karabanow (2006), in the early trajectories of street life, the majority of time is spent trying to meet basic survival needs such as food, shelter, and interactions. The ways children try to meet these needs differ for children with different gender and ages, in diverse situations on the street. The process of going to the street is a gradual process where the early part of the child’s street career is when a child starts to spend frequent time on the streets during the day but returns home at night. In this way, the child is able to assimilate to new surroundings, to make new friendships and to become habituated to street life (Karabanow, 2006).

According to Karabanow (2006) and Rizzini and Butler (2003), themes such as security, drugs, leisure, and mobility all influence children’s life trajectories. For example, the places children go to for work, to play, or to rest influence the places where they spend their time, and the places they avoid. A child’s livelihood activity may influence the use of space, their income, and their reason for following or stopping a certain trajectory. Furthermore, interventions from the government or the police could force children to move into a different life trajectory, and relates to the ways children experience feelings of insecurity or security on the street. Children constantly flux between home and street, from street to institutions or shelters, or to different parts of the city. The processes of temporality and shifts between home, street, NGOs, and institutions have rarely been systematically addressed in ethnographic research. This is interesting since these movements recur for as long as children are on the street (Rizzini & Butler, 2003).

To study the trajectory of leaving life on the street, Rizzini and Butler refer to a study conducted by Lucchini in 1998. Findings from Lucchini’s study suggest that there are three ways of leaving street life: an active exit, and exit due to a depletion of resources, or a forced exit because of removal. In this distinction, the first exit indicates that children have complete agency in leaving the street, the second implicates some acts of agency while the third completely does not. Although his study is conducted over 15 years ago, the three exits still seem to correspond to the realities of children in present day (Karabanow, 2008; 2014).

When children successfully leave the street, they make a conscious, active choice to follow an alternative trajectory. This could occur when children disassociate themselves from the streets when they experience negative, stigmatizing or abusive reactions from mainstream society, or when they have a sense of being in control and able to take care of themselves. When an exit stems from a depletion of resources, life on the street was ended due to a lack of resources for survival, mobility, and sociability (Lucchini, 1998). These two types of exits differ due to the lack of alternative trajectories to the street in the second exit. A common strategy for children is to temporarily distance themselves from the street, because of a depletion of resources or to take a break from the harsh street environments (Rizzini & Butler, 2003). Commonly, such temporary exits are with organizations that offer a shelter or drop-ins where children can go to eat, sleep, and rest, after which they return to their lives on the street.

According to Lucchini (1998), the third possible exit of street life is an exit due to institutionalization or imprisonment, an exit without any form of agency. In general, the street is subject to extensive regulation and control by a number of players such as the police, community leaders and other influential people (Ursin, 2016; Conticini, 2005). In societies

where people see children in street situations as a threat or a potential threat to society, the juvenile justice system is often used as a way to clear the streets and to punish offenders against the common good (de Benítez, 2003). Children in particular countries can get arrested solely for living on the street, or for committing offenses connected with their homeless status, as in the Philippines (Consortium for Street Children, 2002; 1). Governments defend such a repressive system of operating by stating that removing the children from the street is the only way to protect children from exposing abuse and exploitation (de Benítez, 2003).

In short, this section discussed the third and final pillar of the ‘street careers’ framework: life trajectories. The section described how studying the life trajectories of children contribute to the understanding of the heterogeneous movements and fluidities in their street careers. It provided examples of reasons for moving towards and away from life on the street, and how government organizations and NGOs could influence these movements between the different, non-linear trajectories in children’s street careers. Reasons for following certain trajectories in moving towards or away from street life differ due to circumstances, needs, and aspirations of individual children.

In summary, in this thesis, the ‘street careers’ framework consists of three pillars: social identity, livelihoods, and life trajectories. Studying lives as street careers on the basis of these three pillars gives the opportunity to gain comprehensive information on children’s heterogeneous social experiences in daily life on the street, children’s livelihood activities and opportunities, their social identity constructions, and the movements towards and away from life on the street. The ‘street careers’ framework furthermore takes into account notions of age, gender, and temporality, it investigates the influence of public’s opinion on children’s experiences, and does justice to children’s agency. The visualization of the ‘street careers’ framework and its three pillars as building blocks is presented on the next page in Figure three.

STREET CAREERS

Liveli- Life Social Trajec- hoods Identity tories

Public Perception – Age – Gender - Temporality

Figure 3: The ‘Street Careers’ Framework (Source: Author)

1.4 Research Questions To gain a greater understanding of the lives of the children on the streets of Tondo, and to develop a framework on how to study lives of children in street situations in different, but comparable contexts, this thesis is centered on the following main research question:

‘How do children in street situations experience variations in their street careers, based on the three pillars of the ‘street careers’ framework: livelihoods, social identity, and life trajectories?

This question is disaggregated into the following, interrelated sub-questions:

- What are different livelihood opportunities and activities of children in street situations in Tondo, and how does the public’s opinion impact activities and experiences of children differently? - How do children capitalize on social relationships when constructing their social identities? - How do children in street situations in Tondo perceive themselves and how does public’s opinion influence these self-perceptions differently? - How do different children experience variations in their life trajectories of moving toward and away from street life? - How do NGOs and government organizations define the heterogeneous group of children in street situations, and how do children engage with and experience interventions of these organizations? - How does the ‘street careers’ framework contribute in understanding the heterogeneous and diverse realities and experiences of children on the street?

By developing the ‘street careers’ framework, this chapter made a start in answering the final sub-question and meeting the first objective of this thesis. The ‘street careers’ framework offers an approach how to comprehensively study the lives of children in street situations from their perspectives.

To meet the second, empirical objective, I applied the ‘street careers’ framework to the children in street situations in Tondo, Manila. In the following chapters, the empirical study with the children of Tondo is discussed. Chapter two describes the context in which the empirical study for this thesis was conducted. It discusses the socio-economic and political situation of the Philippines and discusses the challenging circumstances of children in street

situations in the country. The chapter gives an overview of the research location in Tondo, Manila and concludes with a short introduction to the NGO where I did my internship: Bahay Tuluyan. Chapter three discusses the research methodology. In this chapter, the child-centered ethnographic research methods are discussed, methods that are critical in studying lives as ‘street careers’. Furthermore, the ontological position that underpins the framework is discussed in Chapter three, followed by an explanation of the sampling method, the ethical considerations, and the limitations.

Applying the ‘street careers’ framework, as visualized in Figure three, to the context of Tondo, the results of the empirical study with children in street situations are presented in the Chapters four, five and six. Chapter four introduces the children of Tondo based on their diverse livelihood strategies, activities, and opportunities for children to survive on the street. Also, the influence of gender and age are discussed as intersecting elements that contribute to children’s experiences on the street. Chapter five examines the children’s constructions of social identity through an investigation of their social relationships with peers and family, and the ways they are able to capitalize on these relationships. Chapter six illustrates diversities in the children’s life trajectories and the varying experiences with government and non- government interventions aimed at improving the well-being of children in street situations in Tondo. The final chapter, Chapter seven presents the conclusions of the thesis and the answers to the research questions. This chapter also offers a discussion on the empirical contributions, followed by recommendations for NGO policymakers in Tondo, who aim to enhance the well-being of the children in street situations. The chapter ends with the theoretical contributions of this thesis and recommendations for scholars aiming to understand the lives of children in street situations.

Chapter 2: Research Context Introduction This chapter introduces the world around children in street situations in Tondo, Manila. The chapter starts by placing the empirical study within a larger context by describing the socio- economic and political situation in the Philippines. The following section illustrates the situation of children in street situations in the country and investigates whether this situation changed under the new political administration. After this, current policies and practices aimed at improving the lives of children in street situations will be discussed, followed by a description of the neighborhood where the empirical study is conducted. The chapter ends with a short description of the NGO Bahay Tuluyan, the organization where I did a voluntary internship and through whom I was introduced to the situations in Tondo.

2.1 Socio-Economic Context of the Philippines The Republic of the Philippines is an island country with a population of around 101 million people. After World War II, the Philippines were the second wealthiest country in East Asia after Japan. However, the country suffered from slow economic growth and economic recession under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, as his regime created a mismanagement of the economy and political volatility. This economic recession only started to recover after the fall of Marcos’ dictatorship in 1986. Revolutions, economic liberalization, and reforms aided the country towards robust economic growth (US Department of State, 2009). Recently, the World Bank called the Philippines a “rising tiger” in East Asia by stating that the country has strong economic fundamentals, good governance and a high number of educated and motivated workers (World Bank, 2011). According to the World Economic Outlook Database (2016), the Philippine economy is the 36th largest in the world.

The wealth in the country is not shared equally among all Filipinos. Under the administration of the former President Aquino, a ten-point economic agenda was supposed to reduce the Philippines’ income inequality and unbalanced concentrations of wealth (Philippine Development Plan, 2011). Yet, according to the Asian Development Bank in 2016, the country is getting richer, but the poor still remain poor. It is estimated that 25,2 percent of the national population is living under the poverty line, and only 60 percent of the population aged 15 and above is employed (ADB, 2016). The gap between the rich and poor is widest in the Philippines when compared with other Southeast Asian nations. The highest concentrations of poor income units are among the youngest people in the country, those aged 30 and under (ADB, 2016). In a country where 33,7 percent is aged younger than 15 years, these concentrations of poor income among the youngest people of the country are alarming.

Under the new political administration of Rodrico Duterte1, who entered office last year, inequalities between rich and poor persist. Before Duterte became president, he was a long- serving mayor in the city of Davao in the south of the Philippines. According to Human Rights Watch, during the time Duterte was mayor of Davao, elements of the local police and local government operated in a death squad that killed about 1,000 people, including criminals, drug dealers, and leftists (Human Rights Watch, 2014). While Duterte was mayor, he began gathering names of suspects from local police offenders and elected officials for a new national ‘War on Drugs’. This list took many shapes and contained anywhere from 600.000 to more than a million suspects (New York Times, 2017). How people end up on or get off the list is mysterious. In total, the war on drugs left over 8,000 people dead, and overwhelmingly hit the urban poor. President Duterte was elected on promises to be a champion of the poor and to reduce the persistent inequality that marked the Philippines. Instead, an industry of murder is growing, at the expense of the urban poor. Street children are listed among the victims of the killings, and Duterte referred to their deaths as ‘collateral damage’ (Amnesty International, 2017).

2.2 Challenges of Children in Street Situations in the Philippines In the context of the unequal and poor socio-economic situations of the Philippines which was presented in the previous section, there are many children living their lives or earning their livelihoods on the streets. The term ‘street children’ in the Philippines has been used to describe boys and girls under the age of 18 who consider the streets to be their home or source of livelihood. For these children, the streets are both their workspace and their playgrounds. They may or may not be supervised by adults, and they may or may not return to some sort of home or family (Ruiz, 2006).

A recent UNICEF report on child poverty in the Philippines shows that in this society, where poverty is a day-to-day struggle, this directly impacts children’s physical and intellectual growth (UNICEF, 2015). In this same report, UNICEF (2015) concludes that combating child poverty in the country continues to be a challenging task. Due to the persistently high population growth in recent years and the lack of inclusive growth, the 36 percent of the children aged below 18 who were considered poor in 2009 are still poor now. Poverty in the Philippines is evident in the number of children and youth who wander in the urban streets, who scavenge in dumpsites and landfills, and those who drop out of school to support their family income (UNICEF, 2015).

1 As president Duterte only entered office on 30 June 2016, information in this chapter is primarily derived from newspapers and non-scientific articles on his policies and practices.

In 2009, The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child raised serious concern about the high number of children living in the streets. While it is difficult to present exact statistics on the number of children in street situations, it was estimated that there were 246,000 street children in the Philippines in 2011 (UNICEF, 2011), with over 150,000 in the capital city Manila (KidsRights, 2012).The UN Committee discussed four main issues posed particular risks for children in street situations in the Philippines: health and hygienic lifestyle, children’s working conditions, a danger of violence and a low standard of living. In regards to health and hygienic lifestyle, the Committee raised major concerns about children’s lack of access to adequate nutrition, clothing, housing, social and health services. For example, children’s lack of shoes sometimes leads to wounds and injuries which are not treated appropriately or not treated at all, and this could easily lead to infections that could have been prevented (Baldo, 2009). The children who live and work on the dumpsites of the Philippines are the ones in the worst conditions. The wooden houses illegally built on the dumpsite are prone to collapse in inclement weather because they are unstable. Rubbish is often burned on these dumpsites, which puts children at risk of inhaling toxic chemicals and of getting infectious diseases. Children in street situations are particularly vulnerable to peer violence, police violence, sexual abuse and exploitation and organized violence. Finally, like other children in street situations around the world, children in street situations in the Philippines often lack adequate shelter or housing (KidsRights, 2012).

2.3 Policies on ‘Street Children’ in the Philippines

“I don't care about human rights.” (President Rodrico Duterte, August 2016)

During his short time as president of the Philippines, Duterte plans to include stronger sanctions against criminals, endorsement for vigilante killings, curfew for minors, and trying parents whose children are caught on the streets (Saigian, 2016). Under his administration, there are two dominant policies on ‘street children’: public order and child protection. In principle, these two are contradictory but so far have led to similar drives of action. Laws concerning children in the Philippines show a tendency to depict ‘street children’ as vulnerable children in need of protection by the state, or as a threat to society simply by being on the streets (Siagian, 2016). Two pieces of legislation support these dominant discourses on street children in the Philippines. The view that children in street situations are a threat to society stems from the Justice Juvenile Act of 2006. In this act, children are characterized as ‘children at risk’ and as children who are likely to commit a crime. A child at risk is one who

is vulnerable to and at the risk of committing criminal offenses because of personal, family and social circumstances, such as, but not limited to, the following: being abused; being exploited; being abandoned or neglected; coming from a dysfunctional or broken family or without a parent or guardian; being out of school; being a street child; and living in a community with a high level of criminality or drug abuse (Republic Act 9344). All these factors are typical depictions of children in street situations.

The 1992 Republic Act illustrates the other dominant policy on children in street situations. The Act covers the need for protection against abuse, discrimination, and exploitation (Republic Act 7610). Under this act, children are considered abused when they are living on the street without parents or when they are forced to beg. In this case, the streets are considered to be harmful to children, emphasizing the need of protection. According to Siagian (2016), both views conclude that children should not be on the street. As a consequence, public’s opinion towards children in street situations in the Philippines continues to be hostile.

Local government units are responsible for implementing services and programs for children in street situations. To protect the children from all the harm on the street, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) implemented a program called ‘Sagip Kalinga’, which translates into ‘to save and to care’. The objectives of this program are to prevent increasing numbers of children in street situations and to ‘rescue’ them from dangerous aspects of life on the street (Scerri, 2009). Whether this ‘rescuing’ is benefitting the children is ambiguous, as it is found that these ‘rescues’ are often indiscriminate, involuntary, harmful and ineffective (Scerri, 2009). The government of the Philippines is furthermore constantly trying to ‘clear up the streets’, especially around big events. For example, in November 2015, the Philippine government detained more than 140 children in advance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila. The arbitrary detentions were part of so- called clearing operations aimed at beautifying the city ahead of the summit. Police detained the children under guard in government facilities for the homeless and orphans and then released them without charge when the summit concluded (Human Rights Watch, 2016). Another example, when the Pope visited Manila in 2016 the government went around the capital city to get people and children off the streets. Children were removed from the streets and placed in governmental centers such as the Reception Action Center (RAC) in Manila. Government officials claim this removal off the streets is to stop gangs of beggars targeting the Pope. Furthermore, when the annual board of governors met in Manila in 2012, the Philippine government built a fence that prevented participants from the Asian Development Bank meeting from seeing the slums in the city. The government does not want to show the

rest of the world the great poverty families and children on the street live in, illustrating the negative public’s opinion towards poor people.

With the tough-on-crime policies under the new administration of President Duterte, that only just commenced, and the government interventions aiming at removing or ‘rescuing’ children from the street, the situation for children in street situations in the Philippines seems to deteriorate. Fortunately, there are a number of locally based NGOs that actively work to improve the situations of children on the street in the Philippines. For example, Childhope Philippines, Virlanie Foundation, Stairway Foundation and Bahay Tuluyan are organizations that run outreach interventions such as mobile units, day care centers, street education, psychosocial support, alternative education and drop-in centers. An important element in these programs and interventions is the emphasis on the importance of the involvement and participation of children themselves in work to improve their situations on the streets 2 (Kidsrights, 2012).

2.4 Manila and Tondo The fieldwork for this empirical research was conducted in Tondo, Manila, one of the most underdeveloped and poorest areas of the country. Among the fourteen districts comprising the city of Manila, Tondo is the most populous with a population size making up an estimated 38 percent of the total population of the city (Philippine Statistic Authority, 2017). In the most populous Manila slums, occupation runs around 70.000 people per square kilometer, one of the densest on earth. The Catholic belief of many Filipinos is one of the main reasons to be reluctant to the use of artificial contraception, and many families can number 12 or 14. The district Tondo is only a few kilometers away from the business district Makati, but the differences in wealth and living conditions are enormous. Tondo is divided into 169 barangays, which are small administrative divisions that often refer to an inner city neighborhood. Part of Tondo consists of permanent houses, where people live in small concrete houses with their entire families (Roy, 2014).

The areas where the empirical research was conducted are Helping Land, Aroma and Happy Land. These areas are in barangay 105, which consists of squatting houses and warehouse- like structured buildings that belong to Temporary Housing Tenements. These tenements were built as temporary housing for scavengers who were forced to move after closing the infamous ‘Smokey Mountain’ land site in 1995 (Medina, 2007). The buildings were meant as a short time solution, yet have become an important component of Tondo. Over the years, the

2 See also Chapter 6

buildings have become structurally defective as most miss a roof or walls. Yet, this has not stopped people from living in these buildings. Around the warehouse-like buildings, people built small houses made out of wood or garbage. The picture below shows two warehouse- like buildings on the left and the wooden houses on the right. Happy Land, Helping Land and Aroma are part of an active landfill site, where trucks dump constantly dump their garbage for residents to look for recyclable materials. People in these areas scavenge for recyclable materials that they can resell to one of the many Junkshops

Figure 4: Barangay 105, ‘Happy Land’ (Source: Author)

Figure 5: Research Location Tondo, Manila (Source: Google Maps, TripAdvisor)

2.5 Bahay Tuluyan: A Child’s Rights Organization During my first two months in the Philippines, I volunteered for the child’s rights organization Bahay Tuluyan located in Metro Manila. Bahay Tuluyan, whose name means House of Welcome, is an NGO committed to improve the lives and well-beings of children in need of special protection in the Philippines. Their mission is to prevent and respond to abuse and exploitation of children through the delivery of child-centered programs and services at the grassroots level. Their goal is to increase children’s resiliency and decrease vulnerability to abuse and exploitation for at least 90 percent of the children that are involved in their programs. Bahay Tuluyan has shelters in three locations: one crisis shelter in Manila and two residential shelters in the provinces Laguna and Quezon. The shelter in Quezon is for boys, where at the time there 33 boys were living. The shelter in Laguna is for girls and young boys

up to five years old, and there were 42 girls and three young boys living there at the time of my internship. The shelter in Manila is a crisis shelter, where children stay up to six months, before they are transferred to the long-term shelters if needed. Other programs Bahay Tuluyan offers in Manila are a drop-in center, a Mobile Unit and an Independent Living Skills Program. Over the past several months Bahay Tuluyan actively engaged in various activities aimed at stopping the killings and Duterte’s proposals to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility and to bring back the death penalty. This rights-based organization worries about the violations of basic human rights in Duterte’s law enforcement agencies which have been given a free pass to eliminate drug users, drug pushers and drug lords. Bahay Tuluyan openly rejects Duterte’s policies and practices.

This chapter described the context in which the empirical study with the children in street situations of Tondo took place. It presented the current political and socio-economic context of the Philippines, and showed that the situations for children in street situations in the country are far from ideal. The chapter demonstrated current policies and practices surrounding child protection in the Philippines, and provided a brief introduction to the neighborhood where I conducted the empirical research with the children of Tondo. Finally, the NGO Bahay Tuluyan with its visions, missions and goals was introduced. The next chapter focuses on the methodology used in this research.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Introduction Using the ‘street careers’ framework inherently asks for research methods that allow gaining in-depth, comprehensive knowledge about children’s experiences and realities from their perspectives. In the study in Tondo, I tried to become a ‘street researcher’ to be able to understand children’s lives and realities through their own experiences (Young & Barrett, 2001). To do justice to a child’s agency and to be able to study experiences and realities on the streets from their perspectives, a child’s participation is of crucial importance. An emphasis on children’s participation gives justice to a child’s agency and reflects the fact that children know a great deal about their own lives (Abebe, 2009; James et al. 1998). The ‘street careers’ framework also implies a certain stance in ontology. This ontological position will be discussed in the next section. The section that follows describes the research methods and techniques, followed by sections on sampling methods and ethical issues that particularly concern studies with children in street situations. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the limitations of the study in Tondo.

3.1 Ontological Position The ‘street careers’ framework implies an ontological stance in which there is recognition for both the child as an active agent, as well as the wider society in which they are living. Accordingly, this study adopts a critical realist ontology. According to Maxwell (2012), critical realists retain an ontological realism which assumes that there is a real world that exists independently of our perceptions, constructions, and theories. It has to rely on multiple perceptions about the single reality, mediated through experiences, language, contexts and structures (Maxwell, 2012). The social reality of children in street situations is not stable, and experiences and realities are constantly influenced by the external reality within which they exist. Investigating and measuring this external reality could be done, but is difficult (Gray, 2013). This research supports the critical realist perspective that attaining a correct understanding of the world is rather difficult. Yet, the empirical study in Tondo explores experiences and perspectives of the children, and does not aim to take a step beyond documenting these children’s experiences to understand this external reality.

As critical realism believes that there is an objective reality, it has frequently been perceived as in conflict with social constructionism, which asserts that social phenomena and their meanings are continually being accomplished by social actors (Bryman, 2012). Yet, Maxwell (2012) and Elder-Vass (2012) argue that there are reasons for thinking critical realism could be combined with some varieties of constructionism. A critical realist ontology with a

constructivist stance enables a clear connection between social entities, in this case children in street situations, and the human agents that make them up. Children in street situations are independent individuals with causal powers to accomplish social phenomena, yet are also shaped and influenced by discursive, societal and structural pressures. This empirical study aims to understand the specific world through the perceived knowledge and experiences of the children in street situations in Tondo, thereby accepting that subjectivity is socially constructed in a moderate sense, without denying the reality where these children live in.

During the empirical fieldwork in Tondo, I became increasingly aware of the importance of taking a reflective stance in the research. Reflexivity is the process of reflecting on myself as the researcher, to provide a more effective and impartial analysis. No social reality exists separated from the context, the research population or the researcher (Alvesson and Skoldberg, 2009). In the context of Tondo, where the topics that were discussed during the research and the various situations are in, it is of great importance to be reflexive as a researcher. I attempted to continually reflect on how my presence, beliefs and assumptions influenced the empirical study. I am aware that the selection of data that is included in this thesis and the process of which data to exclude might not be reflective. Yet, I tried to analyze the data from different angles, in order to be creative and critical during the thesis writing and the analysis. I encouraged myself to adopt a reflexive methodological approach, to be able to constantly be aware of my position as a researcher, and to be able to acknowledge and reflect upon my assumptions and preconceptions during the empirical research process.

3.2 Research Methods

“It is essential to view street children’s actions and motivations as complex and diverse, depending on the situation they find themselves in and the people with whom they interact.[…] Street children do not lack agency, but take responsibility for their own actions and have some control over their lives (Beazley, 2003; 2-3)

Considering the empirical objectives of the study and the ontological stance implied by the ‘street careers’ framework, found ethnographic methods as most suitable to gain a better understanding of the lives and experiences of children in the context of Tondo. By using ethnographic research techniques such as participant observation and visual ethnographic methods, my aim was to bring children’s subjective experiences into the realm of interpretable data, doing justice to the agency these children have in their lives (Van Blerk, 2015). The acknowledgement of agency is especially relevant when studying the experiences

in the street careers of children in street situations. While children’s environments and activities can be observed and described, qualitative approaches are needed to link observations into a comprehensive story which adequately accounts for perceptions, motivations and identities (Aitken & Herman, 2009).

In an attempt to get in-depth, contextual understanding of the street careers of the children in street situations in Tondo, I built a reflexive research strategy by using different qualitative methods. In total, I gathered eleven life trajectories drawings, conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with children in street situations and six with NGO employees, led two focus groups (one with girls and one with boys), and organized ten digital storytelling projects. Besides this, I also volunteered for the Non-Governmental Organization Bahay Tuluyan, where I conducted my first observations. Each of these research methods are presented in Figure six below and are discussed in the following sections.

Ethnographic Data Collection Methods

Children in street situations NGO- Employees

Semi- Visual Informal Participant Focus Structured Participatory Interviews, Observation Groups Interviews Methods Fieldwork notes

Semi- Digital Structured Life Trajectories Storytelling Interviews Drawings Projects

Figure 6:Ethnographic Research Methods (Source: Author)

Semi-Structured Interviews The interviewing with the children started by the end of October, after I had become familiar with the circumstances in Tondo through my volunteer work, and after getting to know the children who were willing to participate in the empirical research. In total, 30 children participated in the semi-structured interviews, which were conducted on the street, in my interpreter’s house and in one of the ‘buildings’ where the children live. I expected the interviews with the children to not last long, given Young and Barrett’s (2001) statement about the limited attention span of children in street situations. However, I found that most

children had no problem focusing in the interviews that lasted around 45 minutes. Whenever my interpreter and I thought that the children were losing their focus, we took a short break and continued afterward. The main advantage of this method is the emphasis on how the child ‘frames and understands issues and events’ (Bryman, 2004: 238). After conducting the interviews with the children in Tondo, I conducted six interviews with NGO employees, to ask them about the policies and practices in their organizations.

Participant Observation Although the semi-structured interviews could provide a great deal of useful information, conducting interviews without observing children’s daily lives would be insufficient (Van Beers, 1996). In other words, to include children as active agents in the research process conducting semi-structured interviews should be combined with the use of additional research methods. In order to complement the interviews and to triangulate the findings, I spent as much time as possible on the street, to observe children in activities in their daily lives. During the observations, I looked at what the children were doing, who they were doing it with, and how the streets play a significant part in the activities. I tried to observe the children in an active manner, by helping them with their work activities or playing with them. During some of the activities, such as begging, selling drugs or jumping in trucks, I was clearly unable to join them. However, I was able to help my interpreter and her friends while they were working on the street, which enabled me to observe the children working and wandering around during day time, giving me a greater understanding of their work activities, their work hours and their social interactions.

Life Trajectories Drawings Participatory visual communications, such as drawings and photography, hold the potential of portraying a more nuanced picture of lived realities, while at the same time empowering the children who participate in these methods (Literat, 2013). Visual methods were used to be able to exemplify children’s understanding of their experiences through the daily circumstances within their local environment, to gain insights into the context of a child’s lived experience (Oh, 2012). Child-centered visual methods have the possibility to conduct empirical research with children rather than research on children in street situations (Young & Barrett, 2001). These methods embrace and celebrate different experiences of childhood, thereby doing justice to the diversities and fluidities in the street careers of the children in Tondo. The first visual method in my fieldwork was gathering drawings of children’s life trajectories. These drawings were made when my interpreter and I took a great number of children to a festival. I asked the children to draw different phases of their lives and told them they could choose the number of boxes they wanted to use. By using this method, children

were able to express themselves and to think about what they wished to portray (Young & Barrett, 2001).

I included this method because it was a great method for children to express themselves freely. The children themselves were in control of producing the pictures they wanted to produce, and at the same time in control of what they wanted to produce. Yet, after gathering eleven drawings, I decided to stop asking other children to make these drawings. The main reason for me to stop using this data collecting method was because two children told me they did not know how to hold a pen or pencil. They felt ashamed that they did not know, and I did not want to evoke such feelings. Therefore, I decided to leave out this method where children were supposed to draw, to overcome the possibility of evoking feelings of shame.

Figure 7: An example of a Life Trajectory drawing

Digital Storytelling Projects Participant observation was set up in order to obtain data that could not be gathered by interviewing the children, the presence of me as a researcher could still influence children’s behavior (Young & Barrett, 2001). In addition, there were many places where my presence was either undesirable or dangerous. In order to get an idea of the experiences in children’s careers on the street when I was not around, I handed out ten disposable cameras and asked children to document one day in their lives. They were completely free in what to photograph, as long as it had something to do with their lives. This method is a qualitative visual method that facilitates contextual understanding of children’s circumstances (Oh, 2012). This method intended to foster participatory opportunities for children in street situations to give them a

voice (Green & Kloos, 2009). This method had proved to have several advantages, both from my point of view and the child’s point of view. As Young and Barrett (2001) argued, this method has the possibility to provide an excellent coverage of ‘street children’s’ daily lives. The digital storytelling projects contributed in understanding how children interact with their surroundings together with the meaning they ascribed to these interactions. Some children’s pictures went beyond visual representations and gave insights how the children interpret their experiences. The camera furthermore went to places and spaces where it is impossible for me as an ‘outsider’ to go to. From the child’s point of view, this method was perceived as a ‘fun’ activity and made the children excited to participate. It treated children as a social actor while taking into account their experiences of adversity. Ennew & Plateau (2004) argue it is unethical to ask children direct questions about painful experiences. Indirect data collection methods such as this digital storytelling project allowed children to withhold information they did not want to share with me. Representations from the visual research methods facilitated discussion with the children to explain the reasons behind what they had drawn or photographed.

Focus Groups I conducted two focus groups, one with girls and one with boys in various street situations. I decided to conduct the focus groups separate for boys and girls because that allowed me to further examine the aspect of gender and the influence of gender norms on children’s experiences as a group of boys or girls. During the focus groups, I asked the children about differences between boys and girls, especially surrounding their livelihood activity and the influence of public’s opinion. The fact that these interviews were set up as focus groups with multiple children offered the opportunity to explore the specific theme of gender in-depth (Bryman, 2012).

3.3 Sampling The participants in the empirical study in Tondo were selected through non-random sampling. In non-random sampling, the researcher aims to sample participants in such a way that it is relevant to the research question that is being posed (Bryman, 2012). According to Faugier and Sargeant (1997), non-random sampling methods of data collection facilitate the opportunity to study unknown and hidden populations, such as children in street situations. I selected the children in Tondo who participated in the empirical study using a purposive sampling method, a type of non-random sampling. In this sampling process, my personal judgement affected the selection process, as I wanted to ensure that the sample included children with different experiences, realities, and characteristics. Including children in different circumstances maximized the likelihood of variation and highlighted how children

in street situations in Tondo are not a homogeneous group of children. In total, there were 38 children who participated in the empirical study in Tondo. Their ages ranged in estimated age from 10 to 19. The children were equally divided in gender, 19 girls and 19 boys. The eight NGO-employees were employed in various organizations in Tondo, close to where the children live.

3.4 Ethical Considerations When social research involves direct contact with children it is necessary to carefully think of ethical issues. Ethics are described by Sumner and Tribe (2008; 37) as being “concerned with questions such as what we should do and how we should conduct ourselves”. Ethical research is based on the expectation that participants of the study will suffer no harm as a result of the research process or its outcome. Especially when studying groups of marginalized children such as children in street situations, great care must be taken to conduct empirical research while protecting them from exploitation promoting their wellbeing (Richter et al., 2007). First and foremost, before all my interviews, I guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity if requested by the respondent. According to Richter et al. (2007), there are other ethical principles that must be assured in empirical research with children in street situations such as autonomy, beneficence, and justice. In regards to children’s autonomy, I made my role as a researcher clear to those who participated and explained the nature of the research process. After providing the children with information about the empirical study, I aimed to build up a relation based on trust. Eventually, the children were given the choice to participate in the research process or not.

The ethical principle of beneficence means doing no harm to the children participating in the study. This harm could include psychological harm such as embarrassment. As explained in the previous section, I decided to stop the life trajectories drawings, to prevent provoking feelings of shame with other children. I furthermore explained the right to withdraw from the study at any time. According to Hutz and Koller (1999), it is never ethically appropriate to give them any reimbursements, monetary or otherwise. However, as most of the children had great difficulties in earning enough money to buy food, I decided to give them a meal after each interview. This was only after they decided to participate, as a compensation for giving up the time in which they could have worked to earn money.

In addition to these ethical considerations, another ethical aspect was my position as a Western researcher. As mentioned above, it was important for me to be reflexive as a researcher. Being the only foreign, tall, and white woman in Tondo, I was constantly aware of my presence in the barangays. Yet, through my interpreter, I was able to gain trust from the

35 adults and the children before they actively participated in my empirical research. Besides the help of my interpreter, I built up a relationship with a woman who had brought a lot of work opportunities to the area, making her one of the most respectable members of the area. People associated me with her and this may have contributed to a greater sense of respect for my presence in the slum.

According to Young and Barrett (2001), confidentiality is a major ethical concern for researchers in relation to for example children’s use of space and nature of activities. Children use ‘hidden places’ to gather sleep, to perform illegal activities or to avoid the public eye. Revealing where children, for example, go to for safety could seriously affect their security, and trust between me and the children was, therefore, again, of major importance. During the study in Tondo, it was furthermore important to recognize the possible problems that providing children with a camera could cause. For example, other children could have reacted in a hostile manner out of jealousy, or policemen could think children stole the camera and take them away (Young & Barrett, 2001b). To make sure this did not happen, I accompanied the camera with a card with my personal information as a researcher and the objective of the research activity. Yet, in one case, a girl had lost the card that was adjusted to the camera when she took a picture of the jail her father was in. As a result, the policeman took the camera from her, thinking that she had stolen it. This could have turned into an uncomfortable situation but fortunately, when we went to the jail the policeman gave it back to me.

While taking these theoretical and ethical considerations into account, the empirical objective of this study in the Philippines was to make a meaningful contribution to the knowledge about the lives and circumstances of children in street situations in Tondo, Manila.

3.5 Limitations One of the major limitations I faced while conducting my empirical research in Tondo was the problem of language. Tagalog is one of the official Filipino languages and the language that is spoken in Tondo. It was not possible for me to learn this language in my short amount of time in the field. Due to the language barrier and the safety risks, I constantly had to work with an interpreter. It has to be said that the woman I chose as my interpreter, a 33-year-old mother of four from Tondo, had not spoken English for too long and did not fully master the language. Although I may have been able to choose other interpreters that speak better English, I chose to work with her as she had lived in Tondo her entire life and knew everything and everyone who was living in her barangay. She understood the Filipino culture and religion and had contacts with a great variety of families and children. Furthermore, as she had no permanent job, it was possible to work with her nonstop. Besides this, she was

also really enthusiastic and brought me to places I would have never been able to go to without her, therefore the imperfect English remained a small price to pay considering these strengths. The next challenge that occurred in my study in Tondo is the rather unsafe area where I was working in. Due to the numerous police raids, the high level of poverty, occurrences of violence, and the presence of drugs pushers, drug addicts, and Duterte’s ‘War on Drugs’, it was too risky for me to be in Tondo during the night. Late at night was when most of the shootings and fights occurred, so I made sure that I was out of the slum area when it got dark. The danger posed limitations to my knowledge and understanding of what children experience during the night.

A further limitation can be found in the presence of others as some of the interviews being conducted, such as older members or parents who would hang around with the children while on the streets. Their participation obstructed the gathering of information that would reflect the street experiences from the children’s perspectives. However, these older children or parents played a role in comforting the children and to prodding the children to respond and share experiences. The fieldwork conducted for this research took place in a four-month period from September and December 2016 in Tondo, Manila. Four months is a relatively short period of time in an ethnographic study. During this time I also was in the hospital due to sickness, which limited my time to collect data some more. I would have liked to have had more time in order to build a meaningful relationship with the children in question. Yet because the relationships my interpreter has with the children is often very strong, the children were comfortable talking to us. So despite this narrow time, I can say that I am content with the data that I collected.

This chapter described the methodology that was used in the empirical study with the children in Tondo. The methods are in line with what ‘street careers’ inherently asked for, and includes children as active actors in the study. Also, the research locations, the sampling method, ethical considerations, and limitations of the empirical study were discussed. The next three chapters contain the results of empirical fieldwork conducted in Tondo.

Chapter 4: Introducing the Children of Tondo and their Survival Strategies

Introduction In the following three chapters I present the findings of the ethnographic study that was conducted with children in street situations in Tondo, Manila. Building on my theoretical chapter, experiences and realities were analyzed using the ‘street careers’ framework and the results will be presented on the basis of the three pillars: livelihoods, social identities, and life trajectories. The framework was used to structure and analyze the data and to present coherent, contextual, in-depth and comprehensible information on the heterogeneous lives of children in Tondo.

To overcome the problem of categorizing or defining all children visible on the street, I chose to work with children that work, sleep or live on the street, or for whom the streets play a significant role in being a source of livelihood in their everyday lives and identities. In this way, emphasis is placed not on the degree of street connectedness or the reasons for children to be on the street, but on the fact that realities are an integral part of the child’s life. As every child’s life is different, it is not surprising that the experiences of children differ largely between both individual children and groups of children who are living or working on the streets. To present the heterogeneous experiences and realities on the streets of Tondo, I chose four children and their livelihood activities that will serve as protagonists throughout this chapter. These four children, on the one hand, experience unique and individual experiences while on the other hand may illustrate experiences of a larger group of children. By choosing these four children with their livelihood activities and opportunities, I demonstrate how children with different characteristics have diverse experiences in earning their livelihoods on the streets of Tondo.

This first empirical chapter makes a start in presenting the heterogeneous experiences by means of the second pillar in the ‘street careers’ framework: livelihoods. The reason for starting the empirical chapter with the second pillar is that it gives the opportunity to introduce the children based on an aspect of their life that consumes a great deal of their time. Examining children’s livelihood activities and opportunities offer a start in illustrating the experience of heterogeneities in their street careers. The first section of this chapter introduces the four children in Tondo, followed by a section on the different strategies for survival the different children in Tondo adopt. The following section discusses experiences of the children with four main livelihood activities, and the chapter concludes with a section that examines

how, in Tondo, a child’s age and gender is related to his or her livelihood opportunities and activities.

4.1 Introducing the Children of Tondo The four children and their street careers will be extensively set out over the coming chapters, yet let me quickly introduce them in this section. I chose these particular four children, because they are distinct in their characteristics and appearances, have different living conditions, and perform diverse work activities. Besides their differences, these children are also part of a larger group of children who may experience similar experiences in their street careers. I interviewed friends of each of the four children, to explore whether being part of the same group possibly results in similar experiences. The children serve as illustrations, as ways to find patterns and exceptions in the great variety of empirical data this study has found.

The first child is the ten-year-old Yhanie3. I first came into contact with him when I saw him next to the highway, in one of the barangays where I conducted the empirical study. He was with friends and they were not wearing shoes or t-shirts, and were covered in dust and filth. They were sitting at the side of the road, waiting for the right moment to jump in trucks that stopped at the traffic light. I learned about experiences in his street career through observations, interviews, and from his participation in the digital storytelling project.

The second child is Jane. This fifteen-year-old girl lived with my interpreter for two weeks, a few years ago, when she had nowhere else to go to. She has seven siblings, the youngest being two years old. Jane is a girl who looks well cared for, wearing lipstick and clean clothes. She participated in the digital storytelling project, as well as in the interviews. It was harder for me to observe her and her daily activities due to the places she spends her time, which were often too dangerous for me to go to. Yet after a while, she trusted me enough to show me more aspects of her life and introduced me to her friends which enabled me to spend more time in the areas which I previously perceived as dangerous.

The third street career that will serve as a protagonist is Jezra’s career. Jezra is a twelve-year- old girl who lives opposite to the house of my interpreter. She lives with her parents and her nine siblings and loves to play outside with her friends. She was frequently wearing old and dirty clothes, and often ran around without any shoes or slippers on. I was able to observe her during my time in Tondo, she participated in an interview and drew a life trajectory drawing.

3 All names in this thesis are pseudonyms to secure children’s anonymity.

The final street career is that of Elyo. Elyo is a fourteen-year-old boy, who lives with his mother and three siblings. I met him during my second week in Tondo, when I was walking through the slum with my interpreter. He was playing basketball in front of a junkshop next to the main road. When I first met him he was in a good mood because he had just earned money by selling collected garbage. Elyo and his friends did not want to get interviewed in the house where I interviewed most other children, so I interviewed them outside on the street, next to the main highway in Tondo. He was relatively ‘easy’ to observe, because he spends most of his time outside in the same area. Yet, adequate observation of Elyo’s life was obstructed due to the insecure environment which did not allow me to spend time with him after sunset. After the first few weeks of my fieldwork which included participant observation and interviews, I understood that I was missing an important experience in his daily life. Especially for Elyo and his friends, who perform most of their work activities at night, it seemed their relationship with the environment and other people changed during the night. I therefore asked them to participate in the digital storytelling project, where I asked them to document a normal ‘night’ of work.

4.2 Surviving on the Streets of Tondo For most people in Tondo, earning a livelihood on the streets is a central part of their street careers and often necessary for survival. This is exemplified by Yhanie’s story which details how he works long hours on the street in order to earn enough money to survive:

When I wake up I don’t have breakfast, I start working right away. I work from the morning until it is dark, and I walk to different places to pick garbage for work. We [me and my friends] have to work hard to get money and food. […] Other children go home with food or go to school, we don’t. I have to take care of my siblings.

During the fieldwork, I observed that adults and children in diverse street situations continuously search to improve their socio-economic situation with more money and more freedom. One of the greatest difficulties for children in Tondo is the lack of resources to meet their basic needs. Many children do not have enough money to buy food, have no access to shelter, and difficulties in accessing health services when needed. In an attempt to increase the opportunity to meet their basic needs, children in street situations in Tondo adopt a variety of livelihood strategies for survival.

One of these strategies is the reliance on eating pagpag food. Pagpag is a Tagalog term used for leftover food from fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Jollibee or KFC. Literally, the term means ‘shake off the dust or dirt’, which refers to the way this food is collected and eaten. Children collect and sort garbage from garbage trucks or bins on the street or outside of the restaurants in search for pagpag. After collecting food from the trash, they clean the food at home and either eat or resell it in the morning. One bag of pagpag costs around 20 Philippine Pesos4, and feeds an entire family for a day. It is a cheap yet unhealthy alternative to buy food for people who are otherwise not able to buy enough food to meet their basic needs. Families largely know the dangers of eating this kind of food, yet eating pagpag is the only way for them to be able to eat at all.

Besides eating and selling pagpag, children also survive by engaging in NGO feeding programs. Jezra, together with nine other children that participated in this study, are part of an NGO feeding program. There are numerous NGOs in this area of Tondo, all with different programs and activities such as schooling, sponsorships, health services, feeding programs and sports. Yet, children who participate in NGO programs seem to primarily engage with organizations that have a feeding program. This again highlights the difficulties children face in gaining food.

In addition to the strategies mentioned above, what has become evident from this empirical study is that most children in street situations in Tondo earn their livelihood through work. Children and families engage in a variety of activities that contribute in earning a livelihood on the streets. It is not uncommon to see young children working on the streets, and several children revealed how it is normal for them to work:

Yes off course [it is normal for me to work at my age]. Because then we can have food, I have to work. (Jelvin, +/- 10)

I need to work hard before I have money. (Jezra, 12)

It is normal [for me to work] but it is not good. We are still young and we are tired. There is not much time for us to sleep. (Marie Jane, 13)

The type of work activities that the children perform to earn a livelihood are described in the next section.

4 At the time of the fieldwork 20 Philippine Pesos (₱) was 0,35€

4.3 Work Activities of Children in Street Situations in Tondo Children in street situations in Tondo engage in a mix of livelihood activities in the ordinary course of the day. While walking through the different barangays, I observed the great amount of people, both adults and children, working on the street. In this section I will highlight the livelihood activities that are most common among the participating children: stealing from trucks, selling drugs, collecting and cleaning plastic bottles, and collecting and separating garbage.

From the children that participated in the empirical study, a large number of them explained that collecting, separating and selling garbage, or as they called it ‘picking garbage’, is one of the livelihood activities they perform. One of these children is the fourteen-year-old Elyo. Elyo, with three friends, picked garbage during the night, because the moment when cafes and restaurants close and dump their garbage outside around 3 AM, is the moment when there is most work for the boys to perform. At the same time, night-time is when most tourists are on the streets from whom they beg money. The four boys participated in the digital storytelling projects, where they photographed one normal work ‘day’. During the conversations about the pictures, they spoke about how they look for recyclable garbage they can resell to junkshops. To collect the garbage, Elyo and his friends go to an area away from their homes, Malate. They collect the garbage bags when hotels and restaurants put the bags outside, and bring them back to Tondo to find out if what they can resell. Figure 8 illustrates how these boys collect their garbage and Figure 9 shows the garbage the boys collected the night that I gave them the camera.

Figure 8:5 JM and Chito looking for recyclable garbage Figure 9 The garbage the boys in the garbage bags people put outside collected that night

5 All pictures in this thesis are taken by children who participated in the digital storytelling project.

‘Picking garbage’ is central to several boys’ lives, but not always in the same way. For Yhanie and his friends, this livelihood activity works a little different. In front of the barangays where these boys live, there is a large highway, which is an important road for trucks that transport garbage and goods from and to the harbor. Right in front of their barangay, there is a stoplight where trucks need to stop and wait for the light to go green. Yhanie and his friends jump on the trucks to steal whatever they can find: metals, newspapers, iron, cans, or anything else they can sell to the junkshops. They know exactly how long the stoplight is colored red, and make sure they are back on the ground when the light turns green and the truck starts moving again.

The examples of Elyo and Yhanie are a start in illustrating heterogeneities in children’s street careers in Tondo. They both ‘pick garbage’ to earn their livelihoods on the street, yet their experiences vary greatly. To illustrate, while Elyo and his friends work during the night, Yhanie and his friends work during the day. Furthermore, Elyo performs his work away from home while Yhanie’s activity is performed in front of his barangay. According to Elyo, ‘Picking garbage’ like he does could be classified as, named by van Blerk (2006), a ‘legitimate’ activity. Elyo perceives his work as ‘good’, and thinks other people feel sympathy for him. The way Yhanie performs his job could be classified as an ‘illegitimate’ activity (van Blerk, 2006), as Yhanie expressed how he thinks that people are not supporting the way he earns his money. By illustrating the stories of these two boys and their friends, I suggest that experiences, situations, and realities could be far from homogeneous, even when children perform ‘similar’ livelihood activities.

As can be expected, there are many other livelihood activities that children perform on the streets of Tondo. Jezra is one of the children who ‘cleans’ bottles. Cleaning plastic bottles means removing the caps and labels from plastic bottles, and separating the bottles by color. Again, the activity of ‘cleaning plastic bottles’ works differently for different children. Jezra and her family buy big bags of plastic bottles from junkshops, ‘clean’ and separate it, and resell recyclable plastic to a junkshop, where it is weighed and exchanged for money.

Figure 10: Treb cleaning bottles Figure 11: Jezra cleaning bottles in outside on the street front of her house

Treb collects his garbage in a different way, a way more comparable to Elyo’s. He waits for bars to close, and collects garbage from bars and hotels. Figure 10 and 11 illustrate how Treb performs his work on the street, while Jezra works in front of her house, Performing the same livelihood activity does, again, not imply that children necessarily have similar experiences.

The final livelihood activity that was performed by multiple children is selling the drug Rugby6. The fifteen-year-old Jane formerly collected garbage and worked as a saleslady in a mall, but quit her job not too long ago when her father went to jail. With her father in jail, who she has to bring food to every day during lunch time, she is not able to work in the mall anymore. Her changing family situation required her to change her livelihood activity for as long as her father is in jail and she has to bring him food. She now, together with two of her friends and her mother, sells Rugby. It is illegal to sell solvents to minors without parental consent, or for her to sell it as a drug to others, but Jane considers it an easy product to obtain and to sell. For her it is a relatively easy, yet dangerous7 way to earn money.

This section highlighted different and multiple livelihood activities of children in street situations in Tondo. It gives a first sketch of the variety of lives and experiences children have while on the street. In the next section, I will further develop this heterogeneous picture by introducing the aspects of gender and age.

4.4 Age and Livelihood Activities and Opportunities To examine how age is related to livelihood activities and opportunities, I asked the children if they think it is easier for younger or older children to make money. By asking this question, I used the broad labels ‘younger’ and ‘older’ children, as was also done by Evans (2006) in

6 Rugby is an aromatic inhalant that alleviates hunger once the user is high. 7 Reasons why selling Rugby is dangerous are explained in Chapter 6.

her study on street careers in Tanzania. On the question whether age determines a child’s work activities, Aprilyn answered as follows:

No age does not determine work, work is determined by height. The bigger and taller you are, the more money you can make. […] It is easier for older children [to earn money] because they know the best way to make money. They are better in the work they do. (Aprilyn, 14)

The importance of physical strength in earning money is shared among other children. For instance, the eighteen-year-old Joriz works in the junkshop where most of the children sell their collected garbage. He performs labor-intensive work and expressed how, according to him, it is easier for him to earn money: ‘It is easier to make more money when you are older and taller.’ Likewise, JM, an eleven-year-old boy expressed the following:

It is not easy for me to make money because sometimes I cannot collect a lot of garbage because I am not strong like the older children. (JM, 11)

This quote illustrates two things. One the one hand, it demonstrates how JM thinks it is easier for older children to earn money than for younger children. One the other hand, as he refers to himself as different from the older children, it illustrates how he perceives himself as a ‘younger’ child.

Besides physical strength, children also related livelihoods to the increasing opportunity to apply for jobs when a child is ageing into youth. Once a child is legally old enough to apply for a job in the formal sector, he or she is likely to earn more money. However, it appears that these opportunities to apply for jobs are not solely related to a child’s increasing age. To illustrate, three children have a job in the formal labor market, while they are legally all too young to apply for jobs. Instead, it is their physical appearance which is related to the increasing opportunity to apply for jobs:

‘Normally 15 year old girls are not accepted as salesladies but they think I am 18 so it is okay for me to work.’ (Jane, 15).

In short, in addition to increasing age and physical strength, a child’s physical appearance is an important aspect related to their livelihood activities and opportunities.

When comparing these results with the work of other authors described earlier in this thesis, the following results stand out. As already discussed, according to Evans, livelihood activities vary according to age. She argues how older children are possibly forced into illegal activities due to public perceptions of them as ‘deviant’ (Evans, 2006; 115). Findings from this empirical study contradict with Evans’, as older children in Tondo are said to have more physical strength and are thus able to earn money more ‘easy’ than younger, less strong children8. In addition, in my study, both ‘younger’ as well as ‘older’ children perform illegal activities such as stealing and selling drugs. The findings from the study in Tondo also contradict Rizzini and Butler’s (2003) suggestion that it is harder for older children to survive on the street, as children of all ages tell me that it is hard for them to survive on the street. Both younger and older children ‘pick garbage’, and younger and older children perform illegal livelihood activities, one could suggest the type of activities children in street situations in Tondo perform is not related to age, yet that ageing into stronger, older looking children may positively relate to a child’s opportunities to earn his or her livelihood on the street.

4.5 Gendered Livelihoods In Tondo, it became clear that girls and boys perform different livelihood activities. I conducted two focus groups, one with girls and one with boys, where I asked the children about the differences and similarities in experiences between boys and girls. I asked this not to generalize, but to address certain gender norms that are attached to livelihood activities and opportunities. When asking the children what typical ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ jobs were, it became evident that prevailing gender norms were related to particular livelihood activities, According to the girls, typical ‘girl’ jobs were washing clothes, cleaning, and teaching. One girl explained that girls generally do not ‘pick garbage’ because girls are supposed to do household chores. According to her, boys are stronger and able to carry heavier things, and ‘boys do not know how to clean properly’ (Jolina, 13).

As I did see girls picking garbage, I wanted to ask the boys in the focus group whether they though it is okay for girls to collect garbage:

Charlotte: Is it okay for girls to pick garbage? B: Yes, if they need money. (Banoy, 13) C: No. because it is better for boys to do boys work. Girls are in the house. (Chris, 18)

8 The relation between livelihood activities and public perceptions will be discussed in Chapter 5

C: No, because it [work] is the obligation of the man. (Chito, 16) Jo: No because I don’t like to work hard with a girl. (Jobal, 17) A: No, because girls get tired easily. (Alex, 14)

The quotes suggest how prevailing gender norms relate to a child’s livelihood activity. According to most of the boys, girls should be in the house to clean the dishes and wash the clothes. The children believe that the boys are the ones who have to work and earn money. The division between typical ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ work activities that became evident from the focus groups, also became evident from the pictures from the digital storytelling projects. Most of the boys’ pictures were taken on the street with their male friends, engaging in a variety of activities such as picking garbage, begging, carrying garbage, or simply ‘hanging out’. The girls’ pictures primarily show them while doing household chores such as cooking, cleaning or making the bed. The girls also took pictures while they were playing with or taking care of their siblings or children. Nearly all pictures from the girls were taken inside. Figure 12 and 13 illustrate examples of the pictures taken by the girls in the digital storytelling projects.

Figure 12: Jane cooking rice for her and her family Figure 13: Manilyn making the bed

What is interesting is that my observations did not completely support the finding suggested by the pictures that boys tend to spend more time outside then girls. The four girls who participated in the digital storytelling project all had someone taking pictures of them while doing household chores or while taking care of their younger siblings or children. Yet, these girls also spend a great deal of their time outside, sometimes even more than inside, because their livelihood activity is performed on the street. That these girls earn their money on the street did not become clear from the pictures. Based on these findings, I suggest that the pictures that the girls took may have been taken to show me how they comply to certain

gender norms, while in reality this divide between girls’ and boys’ spaces and livelihood activities may not be as distinct.

According to the children, a child’s gender is, in addition to livelihood activities, also related to a child’s livelihood opportunities. In general, children believed it is easier for boys to earn money than for girls. One reason for this was mentioned above, and is related to the belief that boys commonly have more physical strength than girls to carry the heavy sacks of garbage. Two girls mentioned feelings of shame as a reason why it is more difficult for girls to earn money. These girls told me that when they go and ‘pick garbage’ they are often shy as other children bully them. Whether this bullying took place because they are girls performing a typical ‘boys’ job or whether boys also got bullied remained unclear. However, their examples could suggest that feelings of shame are a reason for girls to not ‘pick garbage’ as their livelihood activity.

There are two girls in this study who believed that it is easier for girls to earn money than for boys. These girls gave the following reasons:

When you are a boy and you don’t have work, you have to find a really hard job. For girls it is easier because even when you don’t have work, you can always sell your body. (Jane, 15)

Boys need to work harder. Because when girls sell their body, they get money easily. (Chesa, 17)

Prostitution was only mentioned by these two girls, who started engaging in this activity when they got and physically started looking older. ‘Picking garbage’ was typically performed by boys of all ages, and a child’s physical appearance and strength was related to his or her income. The examples of these two girls suggest that prostitution is a livelihood activity that is related to age, gender, and physical appearance. From experiences with earning their livelihoods on the street, I suggest that the street children the streets of Tondo are ‘not ageless and genderless’, supporting Ennew and Swart-Kruger’s (2003; 91) conclusion.

Concluding Remarks This chapter made a start in examining the heterogeneities in children’s street careers by illustrating diverse experiences based on the second pillar of the ‘street careers’ framework: children’s livelihoods. It examined diverse survival strategies and livelihood activities adopted and performed by the children. The results showed that many children ‘pick garbage’ as a livelihood activity, although children perform this work in different manners. According to the children, in Tondo, income is generally related to a child’s age, height, physical strength, and physical appearance. Once a child physically grows older and stronger, opportunities to earn money tend to increase. In regard to a child’s gender, the pictures taken by the children suggested how particular girls and boys construct gendered places differently. The pictures showed girls performing household chores inside their house, and boys while spending their time on the street. Yet, it were my observations that demonstrated how, in addition to household chores, some girls do perform their livelihood activities on the streets. The activities may be different for girls and boys, but in Tondo, both girls and boys spend their time on the street. In short, when examining experiences on the livelihoods pillar of the ‘street careers’ framework, it is important to recognize that children in street situations are ‘not ageless and genderless’ (Ennew & Swart-Kruger, 2003), but also to recognize that when a child’s age or gender influences his or her experience, this does not indicate that these experiences are generalizable to other children with the same age or gender. Age and gender merely offer a lens through which we can begin to more fully understand the livelihood activities and opportunities of children on the streets of Tondo.

Chapter 5: Social Identity Constructions on the Streets of Tondo

Introduction

“ […]the concept of a moral or street ‘career’ is useful to illustrate the processes by which young people construct and negotiate their social identities over time on the street” (Evans, 2006; 111).

This chapter discusses the experiences of the children in Tondo based on the next pillar of the ‘street careers’ framework: social identity. To study identity constructions as a part of children’s street career, this chapter demonstrates how children generate social capital from their relationships and how the public’s opinion on ‘street children’ is related to children’s identity constructions. Taking in mind the heterogeneities in children’s experiences with work activities and opportunities, studying children’s social identities offers the next step in understanding the variety of experiences and realities children in Tondo have while on the street. By examining children’s identity constructions individually, justice is done to children’s agency and, most importantly, the importance of diversity in understanding children’s street careers is highlighted.

The chapter starts with a section on the importance of social relationships for children in street situations in Tondo. The second section focuses on children’s opinion on public tolerance of existence of these children on the street. The section that follows discusses the ways that children perceive themselves, and how this may or may not be related to the public’s opinion. The next section demonstrates a comparison between the ideas on public tolerance on children in street situations as presented by social scientists on the one hand, and the children on the streets in Tondo on the other. The chapter ends with a conclusion.

5.1 Social Relationships of Children in Street Situations in Tondo

The most important thing about friendship is that you treat each other as family (Joana, 12).

This quote illustrates the two most important types of relationships from which the children utilize their social capital: affiliations with peers and affiliations with family members. The following paragraphs demonstrate the ways that children value their peer and family relationships, and how they generate different types of social capital from these relationships.

Peers For most children, peer relations were naturally regarded as important. The assets of friendship and trust that these relationships provide are the main reason why peer relations were highly valued. Among the children, the dynamics of peer relations appeared to be diverse. For the young boys who perform similar livelihood activities and adopt comparable survival strategies, such as Yhanie and his friends Jelvin and Benjia, friendships are highly valued. My observations showed that Yhanie and his friends are almost constantly together. Yhanie told me that he and his friends help and trust each other, and depend on one another when they are unable to earn enough money to buy food:

It [friendship] is give and take. When I help someone and give someone food or money, the next time they give food or money to me. (Yhanie, 10)

This quote illustrates two assets of social capital that are important in Yhanie’s peer relationships: trust and reciprocity. During the digital storytelling projects, Benjia and Yhanie took multiple pictures of themselves with their friends. During the conversations about the pictures, I asked who one of these children in the pictures was, a question to which these boys could not answer. What was most important for them is that are able to trust each other when they are working, and that they help each other when needed.

The strong value attached to peer relations is shared among more children in my research group. For the eighteen-year-old Manilyn, peer relationships are valuable because of the following reason:

It’s good to have friends. […] When I have a problem I would tell my friends, I can lean on them. (Manilyn 18)

The forms of social capital that Manilyn obtains from her peer relationships are different from the three boys I mentioned above. For her, friendship is important because she can rely on her friends when she has a problem. She also explained how her friend Jane had introduced her to other people, who she now considers her friends. She does not indicate peer relationships as important for survival, yet yields social capital from her peer relationships in a different way: by getting introduced to additional social connections and by being able to rely on her friends emotionally.

According to Beazley (2003), a community of children who have similar background problems and experiences can provide vital knowledge to survive to other children on the

51 streets. For Yhanie and his friends, knowledge and relationships, named by Maclure and Sotelo (2014) as structural and affective assets, are forms of social capital generated from peer friendships that are relevant for shaping their identities on the street. Yhanie and his friends offer each other knowledge of how to jump in trucks without getting in an accident. Knowledge, reciprocity, and solidarity networks between these particular children can be understood as a defense against their marginalization, and as methods of individual survival (Beazley, 2003). Overall, the varying dynamics and norms of reciprocity, trust, additional social connections, and relationships are the assets that underscore the quality of social ties and networks that constitute social capital. These assets are central to social relationships and are utilized as social capital in the identity constructions of children in Tondo in different ways.

Family In addition to the relevance of peer relationships in children’s identity constructions, most children also valued family affiliations as important. For children who earn their livelihoods on the street while simultaneously living at home, family relationships are evidently important. Eleven of those children, who get support from their families while at the same time often have to work to help their parents earn money, showed this importance of family in a life trajectory drawing. These children illustrated this by drawing a picture of their complete family. For children who did not make a life trajectory drawing, findings also show, but in a different manner, that family is important. Some children expressed the importance of family relationships during the interviews, and for others, it was the observations that showed how children highly valued family relationships.

According to Winter (2000; 6), families are widely considered as ‘the bedrock of social capital’, and as the place where most social capital is available. Other scholars such as Barker (2012) also claim the importance of family with regards to social capital. He argues that experience of the family not functioning as a form of social capital is one of the most potent aspects of homelessness. In other words, Barker (2012) proposes a linear theory of causality between street-connectedness and a lack of family connections. For the eleven children who made a life trajectory drawing, this linear theory of causality on the degree of family connections is legitimate. These children are less connected to or visible on the street because they live at home with their families.

There are some children for whom the theory of causality between street connectedness and (a lack of) family connections is not valid. Such children have strong family ties yet are still highly connected to the street. For instance, Jane told me that the connections with her family

are strong. Despite these strong family ties, she lives most of her life outside, because her livelihood activity is performed on the streets. In her case, it is her livelihood activity that predominantly demands her to be on the street, not her family connections. The linear causality between street connectedness and lack of family connections is also inaccurate for Elyo, one of the boys whose livelihood activity of picking garbage was illustrated in Chapter four. Because he is performing his work activity during the night, he spends most of his time on the street. A great deal of his time is spent working or hanging out with his friends on the streets, rather than with his family. The fact that he is not spending time with his family and that he is profoundly connected to the street does, in his case, not indicate a lack of family connections. It was Elyo who told me: ‘family is very important to me’. Family relationships are thus not always decisive in children’s degree of street-connectedness.

A different example of a child’s situation that does not completely resemble the causality between street connectedness and family connection is the situation of the fifteen-year-old Carl. During my time in the field, he lived in the crisis center in Bahay Tuluyan. He was one of the few children who was able to speak English, and he wanted to practice his English with me. After talking to him for a while, he started showing me his scars and started talking about how he got to Bahay Tuluyan. He told me how his mother abused him when he was younger. I wrote the following in my fieldwork notes:

Carl told me how he wanted to run away from his mother, because she did not treat him right. His mother burned him with cigarettes, beat him with sticks, and put his head under water when he said something she did not like. He told me that one time he almost drowned. (Fieldwork notes, September 2, 2016)

When relating this to the implied linear causality between street-connectedness and a lack of family connections, Carl’s example illustrates how initially his family situation did relate to his connectedness to the street. He talked about how the bad relationship with his mother made him desperate to leave his house. When he left his house, he moved from adoption family to adoption family, eventually to the crisis center of Bahay Tuluyan. The lack of strong family ties contributed to his life away from his biological family, but resulted in life in a center, where he now considers the social workers his family.

There are also children who are growing up in families that offer little or no support. For example, Yhanie’s parents and his grandmother are all addicted to the drug Shabu9. Yhanie prefers to be away from his house when his parents and grandmother are ‘high’ on Shabu, and consequently spends long hours on the street both to support himself and to be away from his family. Yhanie’s experiences with his parents being ‘high’ and the inability of his parents to support their children led to an early transition of independent living on the street. When I picked Yhanie up from his house to help and watch him work one day, I saw his baby brother laying in a hammock, severely malnourished with no one taking care of him. I asked what the baby’s name was and how old he was, but Yhanie did not know the answers to both of these questions. This occurrence made me question the value he placed on family relationships. Yet, when I got to know him better, I observed how he interacted with his other siblings. I saw their interactions, and how he enjoyed spending his time with them. When he participated in the digital storytelling project, he did take a picture of his malnourished baby brother, and when I asked him about the picture, he told me how he had lost two baby siblings. He explained that he will only start to love his younger brother when he is at an age where he is more likely to survive. Yhanie greatly values the relationships with his siblings. His parents may not function as a form of social capital, but his siblings (and his peers) do.

Based on these findings, one could conclude that family relationships, peer friendships, skills, additional social connections and knowledge are all relevant assets in the identity constructions of children in street situations in Tondo. Yet, how these relationships and knowledge are related to the experiences of a child varies from child to child, and from relationship to relationship. Some children mobilize peer relationships as resources by giving each other money and food, by helping each other with livelihood activities or by providing emotional support. For others, family relationships with parents or siblings are the most important relationships from which they generate social capital. Regardless of the type of relationships, the findings suggest that for children in street situations of Tondo, their relationships do seem to help yield effective social capital as a social resource. The various types of social capital are relevant to the identity constructions of children in their street careers.

9 Shabu is Crystal Meth, or methamphetamine. Using this drug is dangerous because it is highly addictive, produces anxiety, causes inability to sleep and loss of appetite, causes mental deterioration, and violent and destructive behavior.

5.2 The Possible Relation between Public Perceptions on ‘Street Children’ and Children’s Identity Constructions

In studying lives as ‘street careers, it is important to recognize that society’s norms on ‘street children’ is, in addition to a child’s relationships, particularly relevant in children’s identity constructions. In the empirical study in Tondo, I explored whether and how, according to the children, their identities on the street are impacted by the perceptions and views of society. I broke this analysis into smaller sections, where I first asked how children think society perceives ‘street children’ followed by an exploration of how the children think society perceives their presence on the street. Answers to these two questions possibly suggest how children perceive themselves and how this is related the formation of their identities on the street.

First, I asked what the children think people think of ‘street children’. On this question, two contradictory perspectives emerged. On the one hand, children expressed how they thought public’s opinion of ‘street children’ is unfavorable:

You know Badjao? It is a dirty, bad smell, beggar, everything that is not so good. (Jelvin, 10)

That they have no parents, that they are dirty and always begging.(Aprilyn, 14)

They are not good because they think all street children are criminals. (Elyo, 14)

On the other hand, a more positive perspective appeared:

They [public] have empathy [with ‘street children]. (Treb, 15) They have mercy. They give the money because they think they are begging, even when they are not. (Manilyn, 18).

These two divergent perspectives illustrate how children on the one hand stated that society views ‘street children’ as criminals and dirty children who either do not have parents or have parents that do not take care of them. On the other hand, different children think people have mercy with and feel sympathy for ‘street children’, either because they think children are performing a good job or because people feel mercy for them when they are working. The opinions illustrated by the quotes above were shared among most of the other participating children, who think people either feel hostility or compassion towards ‘street children’.

To find out what children think society thinks of their presence on the street, I asked the children how they think people perceive them. The two divergent perspectives emerged again. Some children expressed how they think the public perceives them as generous or normal or that people do not say or think anything of them. Some of these children also told me that people rather help them or have empathy with them. The fourteen-year-old Aprilyn told me that people often tell her to keep doing what she is doing when she is cleaning bottles: ‘They think I am generous.’ In contrast, other children explained how people call them dirty, Badjao10, or tell them that their life has no sense. Yhanie even told me how he believed that the way people perceive his presence on the street influences his relationships with peers:

People think I am dirty and poor. Sometimes people get mad at me because I am dirty and not clean. And sometimes parents do not want their children to be friends with me. (Yhanie, 10).

What was interesting was that a number of answered the question what they think people think of ‘street children’ by referring to themselves:

I think when people see street children they think that there is no hope. But I still have hope because I have family that can guide me. (Jeawn, 14)

People call me that [street child]. I am dirty and I don’t sleep in a house, I sleep on the street. (Jelvin, 10)

Some people are kind to us because they think it is good that we collect garbage. (Ronnel, 16)

These quotes propose different perspectives of how children possibly relate public’s opinion on ‘street children’ to the ways they perceive themselves. To illustrate, Jeawn’s quote suggests two things. On the one hand, as a direct answer to my question, it shows how this girl thinks other people perceive a ‘street child’. On the other hand, it also provides a lens through which she presents herself as different: in a way she presents herself as not (such) a ‘street child’. Jelvin and Ronnel’s quotes also show how these boys think other people perceive a ‘street child’, although these boys describe this image in relation to themselves. Jelvin thought his appearance and housing situations were linked to why people perceive him as a ‘street child’, while Ronnel linked public’s opinion on ‘street children’ to livelihood

10 According to the children, Badjao is a dirty child, a beggar, a child who smells bad.

activities. From these examples, I suggest that for some children, their belief of public’s opinion on ‘street children’ may be associated with the way they perceive themselves, as they talk about ‘street children’ when they discuss how people perceive them. For other children, such as Jeawn, public’s opinion contrasts their self-perceptions, as they talk about society’s opinion on ‘street children’ as children that they are not.

The contradictory perspectives of how children think society perceives ‘street children’, and the contrasting ways children perceive themselves suggest that public’s opinion on ‘street children’ is not necessarily related to a child’s self-perceptions. From the examples of the children in the empirical study, I suggest that in an area where most children work and spend frequent time on the street, such as Tondo, children do not necessarily experience feelings of stigmatization or alienation from society and may not always experience a hostile opinion on ‘street children’, like the literature seem to suggest (Beazley, 2003; Ursin, 2016; Karabanow, 2014). However, it is important to note that children may be unaware of such feelings of stigmatization, that they did not want to share these feelings, or that they may experience feelings of stigmatizations later on in their lives.

5.3 Differences and Similarities between the Perspectives of Children and Social Scientists on Social Identities Constructions on the Street The previous sections showed the importance of social capital, and the possible relation between public’s opinion and children’s self-perceptions in their identity development in children’s street careers, Building on the previous sections in this chapter, current section aims to uncover why it is that the children in Tondo who have similar appearances, livelihood activities, family ties, ages, or genders, relate public’s opinion to their self-perception differently. Answers to this question will be sought for while building upon the insights of several scholars on components influencing the social identity constructions of children in various street situations across the world.

According to Beazley (2003), livelihood activities of children on the streets of Indonesia are strongly connected to their social identities. When interpreting this statement in relation to the results discussed above, it is important to highlight the following observations. To start, where Beazley discusses the low value attached to the livelihood activity of begging, none of the children explicitly talked about hierarchy between diverse and multiple jobs they perform. Nevertheless, children did use the words begging and being dirty, smelly, parentless or Badjao interchangeably when I asked them what people think of ‘street children’. This suggests two things. On the one hand, that some children use these words interchangeably may indicate how they do relate the livelihood activity begging lower than other activities:

begging, is one of the few the livelihood activities that children refer to when they explain what ‘street children’ do. On the other hand, it illustrates how some children attempt to disassociate themselves from the negative image society constructed of ‘street children’. These children stated that people call ‘street children’ Badjao, and that begging is something that ‘street children’ do, not something they would do.

Furthermore, as discussed earlier in this chapter, other scholars linked children’s identities on the street to living conditions and family relationships or breakdowns (Barker, 2012). According to Barker (2012), strong family norms, trust and independence can keep families together, despite lacking financial resources. In the severely poor area of the city of Manila, trust and family norms might have the capacity to keep families together, as is true in the situations of some children. However, as already discussed above, also children who do have trusting and strong relationships with family members sometimes sleep on the street and identify themselves as Badjao or ‘street children’. In a place where the houses are too small to fit in the whole family at the same time, where everyone lives in (extreme) poverty, and where both adults and children have to work to earn their livelihoods on the street, it is not uncommon for children to be outside and to sleep on the street. An early transition of children to living their lives on the streets may be related to a child’s lack of family relations, but strong family relations do not necessarily keep children from living their lives on the street.

Finally, scholars linked children’s identity formations and negotiations on the street to age. According to Evans (2006), age is related to the construction of children’s social identities in their street careers. She states that age brings in processes of temporality, and how this is related to children’s self-perceptions on the street. According to her, younger street children emphasize more positive aspects of street life because negative experiences are mediated by the pleasure of subverting the norms of society. Evans furthermore states how public perceptions of young ‘innocent victims’ on the street change when children are growing older (Evans, 2006; 115). For children who participated in the empirical study in Tondo, as more thoroughly discussed in Chapter 4, these statements are not always accurate. For some of the younger children, the street is not by definition more positive than for older children. This is illustrated by the example of Yhanie and his friends, who are all young but have to work hard in order to survive on the street. For them, surviving on the street is related to their circumstances, and not easy due to their age. As suggested by the ten-year-old Benjia, society perceives all ‘street children’ as stealers, both young and old. The distinction between ‘younger’ and ‘older’ children is not as distinct as suggested by Evans (2006).

Scholars indicate how public’s perception on ‘street children’ changes from victim into deviant when children age into youth (Ennew & Swart-Kruger, 2003; Beazley, 2003; de Benítez, 2011). For the ‘youth’ in this study, this is not accurate. Let me exemplify this by using two examples of more mature looking boys. Assuming the statements of Evans (2006) and Ennew & Swart-Kruger (2003) are proper, society should think of older children as deviant criminals who engage in criminal acts. However, the opposite appears to be true for some children. One of the boys told me how people commonly help him when he is picking garbage, and how also earns money by begging. Another sixteen-year-old boy told me how people are kind to him and how he thinks that people approve him while he collects garbage. It could be suggested that public’s opinion may be related to the identity constructions of some children on the street, although this public’s opinion does not seem vary based on a child’s age.

Concluding Remarks This chapter examined the experiences and realities of the children in Tondo based on the social identity pillars of the ‘street careers’ framework. The ways children construct their identities is related to a child’s relationships, to different types of social capital, and to some extent to the public’s opinion on ‘street children’. Family relationships, peer friendships, skills, additional social connections and knowledge are assets of social capital that are most important for the participating children. For some children causality between family dysfunctions and street-connectedness is present, while other children have strong family connections but are highly connected to the street. Furthermore, the children expressed two perspectives of public’s opinion on ‘street children’, one rather negative while the other rather positive. According to the children, these positive or negative perspectives of the public on ‘street children’ do not change based on a child’s increasing age, thereby contradicting the literature that suggests this. The two perspectives on public’s opinion also emerged when asking the children what they think people think of them. For some children, these two questions were similar, while others explicitly disassociate themselves from the way they think people perceive ‘street children’.

Chapter 6: Life Trajectories of Children in Street Situations in Tondo

Introduction Previous chapters demonstrated heterogeneous experiences in the lives of children in street situations based on the first two pillars of the ‘street careers’ framework: livelihoods and social identities. This chapter will turn to the third pillar, life trajectories. As elaborated in the theoretical framework, different and fluid life course trajectories of children in street situations over time illustrate the temporalities of, and diversities in, children’s street careers. To do justice to the fluidity and temporality of the experiences of children in street situations in Tondo, this chapter examines possible life trajectories of children on the streets. It focuses on questions such as what intervenes a trajectory? What pushes children away from the path they were on? Or what pushes children back on their former path? It aims to answer these questions by using the frameworks of Rizzini and Butler (2003) and Karabanow (2006) who discuss the experiences of children on the trajectories of ‘becoming a street child’, of the movement between street life and home or institutions, and of the possible ways to exit street life. The chapter starts with a section on the various ways and reasons for children to be in or to transition towards street situations. After this, important themes in daily life such as leisure, insecurity, and drugs will be discussed, to examine whether and how this is related to children’s life trajectories. The following section discusses exits of street life by referring to government and non-government policies and practices. It examines how policies and practices define and target children on the street, and whether this corresponds with the realities of children in different street situations.

6.1 Ways to ‘Enter’ Street Life in Tondo

When examining how children moved towards life on the streets of Tondo, an interesting pattern can be found among the eleven children who drew a life trajectory drawing. As was mentioned in the previous section, these eleven children live with their families but work on the streets to help their parents earn enough money to survive. The drawings demonstrate a picture of the particular children while playing on the streets, a picture of their complete families, and frequently a picture of them while working on the streets.

Figure 14: Life Trajectory Drawing Annalyn, 12

Annalyn’s illustrated the importance of family, work, and school in her life. Her drawing represents how school and work coexist in her life, due to the fluidity of the trajectories. Ten of the eleven children who made a drawing about their life trajectories are currently going to school. For them, as they go to school and work at the same time, there was not particular moment when they started to spend more time on the street. For the one girl who was not going to school, quitting school for her resulted in spending more and more time on the street. She quit school because of financial reasons and moved from the province to Manila to earn money with her family. This girl’s example of quitting school is an example of how children in Tondo can ‘enter’ street life.

Sixteen other children told me that they quit school. Although there is no tuition fee for children to attend school in the Philippines, supplementary costs such as a school uniform, school supplies, lunch boxes and other expenses have forced children out of school. Once children quit school, it seems unlikely they will ever return. Lack of financial resources was often mentioned as a reason to quit school, yet there were different reasons for leaving school:

Because I wanted to stop. All my friends were also not in school. (Ronnel, 16)

I stopped school when I was in grade 4. My teacher always hit me that is why I needed to transfer school. But I did not go to the other school. (Genevie, 18)

The best moment of the day is when there are no classes. I like working and being free better than being in school. (Chito, 15)

The first quote illustrates how Ronnel made a conscious and active decision to quit school, though his peers may have influenced his decision. Genevie’s reason to quit school was based on the conditions in school. When she did not go to the other school, she started to hang out with her friends outside, who spent most of their time on the street. When they quit school, Ronnel and Genevie both started to spend more time on the streets to hang out or to work. Chito is still in school, yet his quote suggests that he prefers spending his time on the street rather than in school. In his case, Chito was often playing basketball or sleeping on a couch outside, to enjoy or to rest. From my observations, I suggest that there are more children who did not attend classes regularly, even when telling me that they did. I saw many children not in uniform during school days, or on the streets during school hours. When asking about this, some children told me that they did not want to go to school or that there was no school that particular day, which I later found out, was often untrue.

In contrast to the examples of the children given above, some children do not go to school or have never been to school. For these children, there was no specific time or process where they ‘entered’ street life. Jaimé told me that he has always lived on the streets just as his parents. He never consciously made a decision to move towards life on the street. Likewise, Yhanie and Benjia have also spent most of their life and time on the street. Although their circumstances are different, for each of these three boys there was no specific time they entered street life, they perceived their lives on the street as what it has always been. It could be suggested that although quitting school could be a possible reason for children to spend more time on the streets, this is not a prerequisite.

Karabanow (2006) suggests that moving towards life on the street should be understood in the context of poverty and children’s individual circumstances. In addition to poverty, quitting school could be a rationale for movement towards life on the street in Tondo. From my research it became clear that it is not only poverty and quitting school circumstances which ‘push children on the street’ in Tondo. It was already briefly mentioned in Chapter 5, but a substantial reason for children to ‘move’ toward life on the street is the lack of space (Director NGO, 24 September 2016). During the fieldwork, I observed that in Tondo, all life takes place on the streets. Both adults and children are often outside on the streets all day, every day. Many families in Tondo have homes where there is no space for all family members to sleep in at the same time. As a result, families take turns in sleeping, or members of the family choose to sleep or be outside in the streets. For example, the twelve-year-old

Jezra told me that she frequently sleeps outside, because she, her parents and her nine siblings barely fit in her house. She also says it is often too hot for her to sleep inside her house and therefore prefers to sleep outside. A lack of space in housing is a critical factor in influencing a child’s connectedness to the street in Tondo.

A different reason for children to ‘enter’ life on the streets could also be related to the livelihood activity some of them perform. For example, in the case of Elyo and his friends, taking a nap or sleeping on the streets during their work ‘day’ does not necessarily imply that these boys do not have a house or a family to go home back to. The boys told me they often get tired during the night, and take a nap somewhere on the streets. While taking a nap, they hold on to their collected garbage, or one of their friends stays awake to guard the garbage they just collected in order for it to not get stolen. These and many other participating children work during the night, and take a nap on the street whenever they are tired during their work ‘day’.

Figure 15: Elyo sleeping on a wooden table Figure 16: Treb sleeping on to take a break from his long work night. His friend on the the street, holding and safeguarding his left stays awake to guard their collected garbage. garbage.

In short, the fluidity between work, school, house, and the street is particularly relevant for studying ‘entering’ life on the street as a possible trajectory for children in street situations in Tondo. For some children, there was no specific moment of ‘entering’ life on the street. There are children who always spent most of their life on the street and there are children who only spend time working on the street while at the same time going to school. Quitting school is an important reason for some children to spend more time on the street, but also lack of space in housing seems to be a fundamental reason for the street situations of children in Tondo. Based

on the different circumstances of these children, it is important to bear in mind children’s individual situations and reasons to spend their time on the streets, which in Tondo is often not only related to poverty. The flux between street and homes is a critical observation in this thesis, as many children in street situations in Tondo experience variations in their trajectories based on these movements between home and street.

6.2 Daily Life on the Street: Leisure, Drugs, Violence

When following Rizzini and Butler’s (2003) and Karabanow’s frameworks to study variations in and between life trajectories in children’s street careers, a logical next step is to examine variations in experiences of daily life on the street. The preceding empirical chapters and sections highlighted great diversities in the daily lives in the street careers of different children in street situations in Tondo, primarily focusing on children’s livelihood activities and social relationships and identities, and the ways to ‘enter’ street life. This section aims to further elaborate on these diversities, by focusing on three themes that appeared to be relevant in the life trajectories of children in street situations differently: leisure, violence, and drugs.

Leisure: playing games Based on my observations, it could well be suggested that playing is an essential part in the lives of children in Tondo. During the interviews I asked the children what they liked most in Tondo and two answers were broadly shared: being close to family and being able to play at any place and at any time. The importance of family relationships in children’s street careers was already demonstrated in Chapter 5 and in the beginning of this chapter, so let me discuss the value of play here. During the fieldwork I have seen children play, children drew pictures of play or they talked about playing. Forms of play include clapping hands, chase games, jumping ropes, karaoke singing, gambling games, card games, games on the computer and basketball.

According to the children in the focus group, most children who gamble or play basketball are boys. This corresponds with my observations. There is one basketball court in Aroma, which was usually occupied by boys of the age of fifteen and above. Younger boys were generally playing basketball on the street, and girls were often playing with ropes and singing karaoke. Many of the girls, from all ages, also liked to play in the Chinese Garden, a green garden just outside of Tondo. One of the only play activities that both boys and girls of all ages seem to do is playing games on the computer in one of the many computer shops in Tondo. From these examples it could be suggested that a child’s gender is related to the type of play activity the children perform. Boys do ‘boys’ games like basketball, and their age seems to be

related to the place where they play. For girls, it is their gender that is related to their experiences with play, not their age.

Interestingly enough, even when the children did have the financial means to buy them, they rarely seemed to possess any toys. When children were playing cards or basketball, the cards or the ball often belonged to a group or a parent, not to one particular child. Although I did not ask them about this, Hecht (1998) suggested that children in street situations find it difficult to keep possessions safe, or that they fear to have their possessions or money taken by their peers or by the police. Based on my observations, I suggest this is partially true for some of the children in Tondo. I spent a great amount of time in my interpreter’s house during my time in Tondo and occasionally bought a pen or pencil for her son and daughter to use in school, and once bought a present when I was away for a while. At first, they seemed very happy with this, but when I asked them where the present was the next day, they did not know or they had lost it. In addition to this particular example, I did see them with other possessions, and it seemed that these two children find it difficult to keep any possessions secure. When I handed out the cameras for the digital storytelling project, I was worried that children would not be able to keep the camera safe or that other people would steal the cameras, and wrote down the following fieldwork notes:

I asked Cell [interpreter] whether she thought it was a good idea to give the children disposable cameras. I shared my concerns with her because I was afraid that something would happen to the children while they had the camera, that they would lose the camera, or that it would get stolen or taken by someone. Cell replied by saying: “these children know how to take care of themselves on the street, you don’t think they are capable of protecting a camera?”. (Fieldwork notes, 4 November 2016)

And indeed, all but one child returned the camera to me in the days after I distributed them. Building on the examples of these cases, I suggest that it is not that children do not know how to keep possessions safe, yet that children decide based on the type of toys or objects whether it is worth keeping safe.

Drugs: Pushing and Using Rugby The influence of drugs on a child’s life trajectory is another important theme when discussing the heterogeneities in children’s street careers. According to the Director of Bahay Tuluyan, the Duterte administration wants to eliminate all drugs as soon as possible (Director NGO, 24 September 2016). She believed that Duterte is creating feelings of hostility towards the poor

and doubted that the drug problem in the Philippines is as big as Duterte wants everyone to believe:

If we do this kind of work with very marginalized children on the street, drugs would be such a big issue. But it is just not something we encounter most of the times. It is just not that big an issue. They want us to believe it is a very big issue but actually, I don’t think it is that big an issue.[...] He manufactured this problem that there is a huge drug problem that is uncontrollable. (Director BT, 24 September 2016)

Based on the ‘war on drugs’ of president Duterte and the high number of drug addicts children seem to encounter and fear, it seemed relevant to examine the drug use among children who were participating in my empirical research in Tondo. From the participating children, five were using drugs at the time of the study. The drugs these children used are solvents, mainly Rugby11. For these children, experiences of drug use and the meaning of drugs in their lives were diverse. When I was looking for Jaimé to conduct the interview, me and my interpreter went to ‘building two’ where, according to the children, most drug addicts live. ‘Building is one of the warehouse-like buildings. It consists of a wall in the front and a few wooden houses built on the dumpsite behind the wall. When we entered the ‘building’, the strong smell of the Rugby instantly struck me. Children from all ages were inhaling the Rugby from socks and plastic bags and walking around the building high on the drugs. My interpreter and I felt like the smell of solvent made us dizzy and drowsy, so we decided to conduct the interviews somewhere else.

Figure 17: ‘Building’ two. The wall is the ‘entrance’ of the building. (Source: NGO Project Pearls)

11 Rugby is a brand of contact cement or glue which is placed in a plastic bag or a sock for children to inhale it directly from the bag.

At the time of the first interview with Jaimé, he had just inhaled a bag of Rugby. Jaimé’s body was very bony, his eyes were squinting, and during the interview he was constantly dozing away, making it hard for him to focus when my interpreter asked him questions. He told me that his friends were putting him under pressure to use drugs and that he needs it to not get too hungry. His reasons to use the drugs are different from the reasons of Manilyn. Manilyn is one of the three girls in this research who uses Rugby. She is pregnant with her second child and told me that she thinks her baby likes the solvents. Furthermore, she used it because it made her feel happy and powerful. Her best friends Chesa and Jane are the ones selling, or ‘pushing’ the Rugby. They both hesitated before telling me that they were selling drugs, because of the danger they are in when the police catch them. Mainly due to my interpreter’s relationships with the girls, they trusted me and were willing to talk to me. For Chesa and Jane, selling Rugby was a mean to earn their livelihoods, and using Rugby was to achieve relaxation and euphoria.

For the ones using or selling the drugs, their experiences differ based on the reasons for using it. Furthermore, for the girls selling the drugs it is their source of livelihood. Although there were ‘only’ five children in this study who use drugs, many others indicated feelings of insecurity related to drugs. This will be discussed in the next section.

(In)Security in Tondo: Violence, Police, Drug Addicts An important theme for the children in Tondo was the feeling of (in)security. During the interviews, children talked about fearing the police, drug addicts and occurrences of violence. Of the 30 children who participated in the interviews, 23 at least briefly talked about the fights and riots in Tondo. Children talked about how gangs and drug addicts fight with each other, and the police fights with them, and how they fight with other children. Jane explained that she is scared when people are fighting, especially when they are fighting with guns. In her barangay and in ‘building’ two, people often shoot each other. There were many other children who talked about fearing riots and fights, often relating these occurrences to drug addicts and the police. There was one occurrence of violence I observed, which I noted down in my field notes:

I was walking with Cell [interpreter] when I saw three men kicking another man who was lying on the street. I later heard that he had stolen someone’s bag but got caught. I was shocked when I saw this occurrence of violence, but it seemed that people around me did not think this was unusual. Children kept on playing, and everyone kept on working. (Fieldwork notes, 1 November 2016)

According to de Benítez (2007), many forms of violence are present and normalized in the lives of children in street situations. This seems to be true for more children. Although many children characterized fighting as unacceptable behavior in their peer group, some of them frequently engaged in fights, and at least witnessed violence regularly.

When discussing the role of the police in children’s street careers, two contradictory perspectives emerged. On the one hand, some children expressed their fear of the police while on the other hand, some children dream of becoming a policeman. One reason for fearing the police was given by Jane. Before Duterte became president, when Jane got caught for selling Rugby, she was able to pay the police money to get released from jail. Nowadays, with Duterte as president, this paying off police officers is not an option anymore. The police are aware of the illegal drug sale in ‘building two’, but have not yet been able to catch the person who is selling the Rugby. Even when the police do know who the drug seller is, the girls still have to get caught in the act. With the new president hunting for the drug addicts and sellers in poor areas like Tondo, her fear of the police increased:

Now I would go straight to jail, because of Duterte. That is why I am so scared of the police. (Jane, 15)

The fear of the police is shared among other children who do not engage with drugs. Children fear the police because of the violence the police use in their raids on drug addicts:

Because they [the police] have their face covered when they are looking for addicts, and then they shoot them dead. (Rey, 16)

I am scared of the police because they shoot people. Drug addicts. There are many drug addicts here. The police come here maybe 3 times a week to shoot somebody. (Jeawn, 14)

I fear the police because when they caught me [because of curfew], they hit me with their guns. (Treb, 15)

These quotes illustrate reasons for children to fear the police. In contrast to the children who fear the police for the different reasons mentioned above, there are six children, all boys, who want to become a policeman when they grow up. According to the children in the focus groups, being a policeman is a ‘typical’ man’s job. The boys told me they want to become a policeman to help and protect street children or to shoot drug addicts. What is interesting is

that one of these boys mentioned how he did fear the police, but also stated he wants to become a policeman when he gets older.

According to Ursin (2016), it is the police who generally seek to regulate and homogenize public space. They push ‘others’, such as children in street situations, back to the areas of social periphery, areas that are not part of public space. It is the police who decide who will have access to specific parts in a particular neighborhood. In Bahay Tuluyan’s report on the government ‘recues’, that will be explained in the next section, several police chiefs stated the following: ‘You can tell from their appearance’ and ‘It is obvious from their appearance’ (Scerri, 2009). Based on children’s appearances, the police classify children as ‘street children’ or not and thereby decide whether to consider them as a possible threat to public order, who should not spend his or her time in public space. For one boy, this judgement on appearance is directly related to his fear of the police:

But I am scared of the police. Because the police think we do bad things just because we are poor and we look dirty, but we don’t! (Magradi, 18)

The previous sections illustrated how leisure, drugs and feelings of insecurity are related to the trajectories children in street situations in Tondo follow. Drugs seem to be primarily related to feelings of insecurity for the children. Using drugs contributes to feelings of insecurity to get caught by the police, and drug addicts provoke fear due to their unpredictable behavior. Multiple children experience feelings of insecurity due to the fear of witnessing a murder by the police. In short, the number of children in this study who are using drugs seems to support the statement by the NGO director that drugs is not as big of an issue as Duterte is portraying, yet drugs does seem a critical factor in contributing to the feelings of insecurity of the children in this study.

6.3 Ways of ‘Exiting’ the Street Previous sections examined various ways of ‘moving’ towards life on the street and addressed three themes that appeared to be related to the trajectories of children in street situations in Tondo. The next step in studying possible life trajectories of children in street situations is to explore possible ways and reasons for leaving or ‘exiting’ the street (Rizzini & Butler, 2003; Karabanow, 2006). According to Rizzini and Butler, there is a difference between leaving the street to enter a shelter, being removed from the street and placed in a center, and leaving the street as an active choice. Due to the timeframe of the fieldwork and the sample that selected children who were in street situations at the time of the study, I primarily examined experiences of children with interventions performed by government agencies exits where

they were removed to be placed in a shelter, and exits where children entered a shelter, an action primarily associated with NGOs. The aim of these sections is to examine to what extent governmental and non-governmental agencies, according to the children, succeed in performing respectful and effective interventions.

Government Child Protection Policies: ‘Sagip Kalinga’

The government is constantly trying to clear up. Particularly around big events, last year it was with the Pope visit. With big events they want to clean up and get people off the streets. (Director NGO, 21 September 2016)

As described in Chapter 2, the Philippine government builds upon child protection and public order discourses in designing their policies and practices. Under the guise of child protection, the Department of Social and Welfare Development (DSWD) implemented a program called ‘Sagip Kalinga’, ‘to save and to care’. This project aimed to reduce the number of street dwellers by bringing them to staging centers where their needs would be assessed and addressed. In performing these ‘rescue’ operations, active government agencies remove children from the street for the purpose of removing the child from danger, as an alternative to arresting a child who is performing an illegal activity, in the enforcement of curfew laws, or to clean the city (Scerri, 2009).

Based on the experiences of the children, I suggest that the program ‘Sagip Kalinga’ is rather a reactive approach than a protective approach. According to de Benítez (2003; 139), a reactive approach ‘sees children in street situations as a threat or potential threat to public order and safety’. It manifests its policy mostly by using the juvenile justice system as a system to clear the streets (de Benítez, 2003). The Juvenile Justice Act in the Philippines exempts children under the age of eighteen from prosecution for the crime of vagrancy or sniffing Rugby, and curfew violations should not be considered an offense because it is discriminate only against a child (Republic Act 9344). However, ‘offenses’ such as vagrancy, sniffing Rugby and violations of curfew seem to be the main reasons why children were ‘rescued’ from the streets of Tondo.

In total, there were nine children who, at some point in their street life, were ‘rescued’ from the street. They all spent time in the Reception Action Center, known by the children as RAC, where the government officials bring the ‘rescued’ children to. Yhanie was rescued because of curfew violations. He was outside after 10 PM, and was ‘rescued’ involuntarily. He stayed in RAC for one month but disliked the ‘rescue’ and RAC due to several reasons. First, he did not like that he was rescued to start with, because he did not want to go to RAC. Once in the

center, he disliked the food that was served. Finally, he disliked staying in RAC because he was not able to help his parents to earn money to feed his younger siblings. More children who were ‘rescued’, because they were outside after 10 PM, sniffing Rugby, or simply because they were living on the street, told me they never want to go back to RAC. Overall, there were two children who did enjoy staying in the center. They liked that they were able to rest, eat and bath. In the center they were taken care of, and that was not the case on the street. In Jaimé’s case, RAC employees placed him out of the center after a month because other children were bullying and beating him. It is interesting that despite the bullying, he did enjoy staying in the center because there he did not have to work all day to be able to eat.

Other children, who have never been in RAC or in contact with the DSWD, expressed their fear of getting ‘rescued’:

I’m afraid to get rescued and sent to RAC. It is not good to be there [in RAC]. It is like a jail, they put you in there and you cannot get out. (Elyo, 14)

I am scared that when I go to RAC I will never see my parents again. (JM, 11)

I am afraid to go to RAC because people hit the children there sometimes. (Benjia, 10)

According to the director of the Bahay Tuluyan, the basis for rescuing is based on what children look like, or what they are doing (Director, 24 September 2016). By performing the ‘rescue’ operations, government agencies relate certain characteristics or activities of children to the social construction of ‘street children’, thereby stigmatizing children that are subject to these operations. From the experiences of the children it became clear that the DSWD does not take into consideration a child’s individual needs, experiences, or circumstances when ‘rescuing’ them from the street. The social construction of a ‘street child’ perceives a child on the street in need of protection or potential threat to public order. Policies and interventions from government organizations are influenced by this social construction, and these ‘rescue’ operations seem to target a street society alienated from mainstream society.

In short, the ‘rescue’ interventions performed by government agencies are possible ways to exit life on the street for children in street situations in Tondo. Based on the findings that were brought forward, the government ‘rescues’ could be criticized for four reasons. First, as sniffing Rugby, vagrancy, and the curfew laws should not be considered as offenses for children on the street, ‘rescues’ performed based on this ‘offense’ are illegal as they go

against the Juvenile Justice Act. According to Terre des Hommes (2014), as soon as these are considered an offense, the criminalization of children in street situations leads to even greater crime. When children could get arrested for the ‘crimes’ they do to survive, the label of a criminal could lead to children making crime their livelihood activity. Repression keeps children on the street (TDH, 2014). Second, the ‘rescues’ are discriminatory towards all poor children on the street, portraying them as one homogeneous marginal group outside of mainstream society. Third, the ‘rescues’ do not include children’s participation and perceives children as ‘incomplete’ adults, not doing sufficient justice to children’s agency. Finally, this type of ‘exit’ is also temporarily and ineffective, which became evident from the experiences of all the children I spoke to, who are currently still in street situations. Treb’s example supports this conclusion best, as he said to have been ‘rescued’ and placed in RAC over a ‘100’ times. The experiences of the children suggest that reactive approaches based on protective and public order discourses fail in performing respectful and effective interventions.

Non-Governmental Policies and Practices Targeting Children in Street Situations in Tondo In the previous section I showed how the child protection and public order discourses inspire government interventions aimed at improving the life conditions of ‘outsiders’, marginalizing all poor children on the street as one homogeneous group of ‘street children’ in need of ‘rescues’. This section examines whether policies and interventions of NGOs, built on rights- based discourses, have more potential in effectively contributing in improving the lives and well-being of children in street situations in Tondo. According to de Benítez (2003), policies can be highly repressive towards children in street situations when a rights agenda is not yet in place. A child-rights approach under which children’s special circumstances are taken into account could provide an alternative to repressive government interventions (de Benitez, 2003).

A reactive approach targeting children in street situations, like the Philippine government is performing, can create non-governmental organizations to be in open conflict with the State (de Benítez, 2003). The NGO Bahay Tuluyan is currently challenging the government of the Philippines to stop the ‘rescue’ operations and to protect the children from the harm that such operations can do to the children (Scerri, 2009). This organization employs a rights-based approach in their policies, which emphasizes children’s right to participation and treats children as complete human ‘beings’. Programs of rights-based NGOs that I interviewed are diverse and include family home programs, community assistance programs, feedings programs, medical programs, education programs, sponsorship programs, livelihood

programs, and other programs and activities. Bases for targeting particular children vary from targeting children who are included in the category of Children in Need of Special Protection, to pregnant girls, abandoned children, malnourished children, abused children, and indigenous children.

The rights-based organizations in Tondo emphasize the importance of family in their policies that secure the rights of the child. They do not only respond to obvious needs such as food, shelter, clothes and medical assistance, but also examine underlying issues and problems that hinder children to fully enjoy their rights and development into healthy beings. Several NGO employees furthermore indicate that they implemented the factor of child participation in helping children in street situations. By empowering children and increasing their resiliency, they are given ownership over their lives and the chance to help improve the lives of others.

Including children’s participation, examining underlying causes and problems of children in street situations, and implementing the importance of family relationships are important in a rights-based approach to programming. According to UNICEF (2016), a rights-based approach leads to better and more sustainable human development outcomes. Based on UNICEF’s conclusion, programs and activities of the NGOs in Tondo should have the potential to lead to favorable outcomes in promoting the well-being of children in street situations. However, an interesting finding in this study in Tondo is that only one child was familiar with the practices of rights-based NGOs. As discussed in Chapter 4, the main difficulty for children in Tondo is earning enough money to buy food. Therefore, children who did engage with NGOs only engaged when they knew that that particular NGO had a feeding program. Most of the children never heard of the NGOs I interviewed, nor do they have an idea about the programs and activities these NGOs offer. The rights-based approach offers a favorable starting point, yet do not seem to reach the children they are aiming to target. Based on the lack of experiences of the participating children in Tondo with rights- based NGOs, practices and programs that effectively target the children in street situations in Tondo seem far from realized.

Concluding Remarks This chapter examined factors that play a role in certain trajectories of the children in Tondo. The results showed that, for many children in Tondo, there are no distinct trajectories of ‘entering’ street life or ‘exiting’ street life. For most of the children, the trajectories they follow are fluid and temporal. For some children, a school trajectory coexists with a work trajectory. For others, there was no specific moment for ‘entering’ street life because they have always spent most of their time on the street. A fundamental reason why children spend most of their lives on the street is the lack of space. For most of the children in Tondo, there is not enough space in their homes for all family members to be in at the same time, and they are forced to spend their lives outside. Consequently, many children in Tondo are in street situations where they continuously move between the street and home, and sometimes between street and institution. It is important to examine the varying and changing situations of the children, in order to be able to understand children’s heterogeneous realities and experiences. Children experience feelings of insecurity due to the presence of the police, violence, or drug addicts. These feelings of insecurity are related differently to their experiences and may affect children’s movements between street and home, as most children adjust their living and working spaces, and the places they want to avoid, based on feelings of insecurity. Furthermore, the government’s reactive approach of ‘rescuing’ appeared to be involuntarily, discriminatory, and temporary. Based on the children’s experiences, I argue that child protection and public order discourses in the Philippines do not do sufficient justice to a child’s personal and individual circumstances, and does not address the problems that led to their street situations. The rights-based interventions performed by NGOs in principle have a more favorable policy, yet based on the conclusion that almost none of these children engage with these NGOs, it seems that these programs fail to reach the children that they aim to target. Overall, the policies and practices of government and NGOs in targeting children in street situations do not have a comprehensive, systematic, and effective strategy to address the various needs of children in diverse circumstances.

Chapter 7: Conclusions, Contributions, and Recommendations 7.1 Conclusions This thesis started by highlighting its two main objectives: to enhance the understanding of the heterogeneous lives and realities of the children in street situations in Tondo, the Philippines and to offer a theoretical approach how to comprehensively study the lives of children in street situations. To achieve these two objectives, this thesis started with a theoretical chapter where the marginal position of children in street situations in current development discourses was critically analyzed. This chapter demonstrated that, in current discourses, children in street situations are often presented, erroneously, as a homogeneous group of marginalized children. It illustrated that portraying children on the street as such presents the risk of stigmatizing all poor children on the street, and that homogeneous representations ignore children’s agency (de Moura, 2002; de Benítez, 2007). In this chapter, I emphasized the need to open up an approach which recognizes that children’s realities on the street vary greatly, and demonstrated the need to develop a framework that allows studying these varying realities. As a response to this need, I developed the ‘street careers’ framework. With this framework, this chapter addressed the following sub-question:

How does the ‘street careers’ framework contributes in understanding the heterogeneous and diverse realities and experiences of children on the street?

The ‘street careers’ framework offers an approach on how to comprehensively study lives of children in street situations as 'street careers’, and that does justice to their heterogeneities in realities and experiences. The theoretical chapter introduced the three main pillars that I have found to uphold the framework, social identity, livelihoods, and life trajectories, and argued that the framework offers a useful tool for analyzing children’s experiences and realities form their perspectives.

Chapter two described the research context of the empirical study with children in street situations in the Philippines, by introducing the world around the children in Tondo. It discussed the current socio-economic context of the country and illustrated the position of children in street situations within this context. In Chapter three, the research methodology of the empirical study in Tondo was described. Studying lives of children on the street using the ‘street careers’ framework inherently asked for using child-centered, ethnographic research methods, because studying lives as ‘street careers’ calls for data giving contextual

information and for methods that include children’s participation. In addition to the research methods, Chapter three discussed the ethical considerations, the purposive sampling method, and the limitations of the empirical study conducted in Tondo.

The Chapters four, five, and six demonstrated the findings of the empirical study on the ‘street careers’ of the children in streets situations in Tondo. Chapter four addressed the following sub-question:

What are different livelihood opportunities and activities of children in street situations in Tondo, and how does the public’s opinion impact activities and experiences of children differently?

In this chapter, it became clear that the participating children in Tondo perform four main livelihood activities that contribute to their survival on the streets: ‘picking garbage’, cleaning plastic bottles, being a ‘jumper boy’, and selling drugs. It illustrated the survival strategies of different children in Tondo, ranging from eating pagpag food to engaging with NGOs that offer a feeding program. A child’s gender seems to be related to certain livelihood activities, and, according to the children, girls are the ones that should do the household chores. A child’s livelihood opportunities seem to be positively related to a child’s increasing physical strength. In contrast to findings from academic literature, a child’s opportunities to earn money in Tondo seem to increase when a child ages into youth on the street, and when his or her physical appearance becomes more mature.

In Chapter five, the following sub-questions were addressed:

How do children capitalize on social relationships when constructing their social identities? How do children in street situations in Tondo perceive themselves and how does public’s opinion influence these self-perceptions differently?

This chapter illustrated the importance of peer and family affiliations in constructing children’s social identities on the street. It demonstrated how children utilize various assets of social capital from different types of relationships. This chapter also illustrated the two contradictory perspectives of the children regarding the public’s opinion on ‘street children’. On the one hand, some children believed the public’s opinion towards ‘street children’ was hostile. On the other hand, there were children who believed that society felt mercy or sympathy for ‘street children’. These perspectives also emerged when asking the children

what they think society thinks of them. For some children, these two answers were similar, while others explicitly disassociated themselves from the way they thought people perceived ‘street children’.

Chapter six demonstrated the trajectories of children in different circumstances, and signified quitting school and family dysfunctions as possible reasons to spend more time on the street. The chapter addressed the following sub-questions:

How do different children experience variations in their life trajectories of moving towards and away from street life? How do NGOs and government organizations define the heterogeneous group of children in street situations, and how do children engage with and experience interventions of these organizations?

The main conclusion in this chapter is that for most children in Tondo, a distinction between moving ‘towards’ or ‘away’ from street life is not as definite as suggested. Due to the role of drugs and the police, the feelings of insecurity, the lack of resources to meet basic needs, the interventions from the government, and simply the lack of space, children constantly shift between spending time on the streets, to spending time inside their homes or a center. The chapter discussed the government interventions that are built on child protection and public order policies, and the NGO interventions, built on rights-based policies. Most of the children experienced the repressive government interventions as negative and these interventions seem to perpetuate life on the street. The rights-based approaches and interventions are built on a more favorable policy, yet reaching the children in street situations in Tondo seems to be a challenge for NGOs in the area.

By answering the sub-questions throughout Chapter four, five and six, the main research question of this study can be addressed. The main research question of this thesis states:

There is no overarching conclusion or answer to this research question, which is also a crucial outcome of this thesis. The findings of this thesis suggest how it is of critical importance to examine children’s realities from their perspectives, in order to understand the heterogeneous lives and realities of children on the street. Studying lives of the children in Tondo using the

‘street careers’ framework offered a great attempt to increase the understanding of their experiences and realities. In the following sections, I present a discussion on the empirical findings of the study in Tondo, and offer a discussion of the ‘street careers’ framework.

7.2 Empirical Contributions of the Thesis An important outcome of the empirical study in Tondo is the conclusion that children in street situations are not a homogeneous group of children with similar experiences. This conclusion seems straightforward, as scholars have come to an ‘agreement’ that children on the street do not form a clearly defined homogeneous population. However, there is still deficient ethnographic research that substantiates this ‘agreed upon’ understanding and that thoroughly describe children’s lives from their own perspectives. Scholars do recognize some heterogeneities in children’s lives and experiences, yet still categorize them in a certain subcategory of street life: as girls or boys (Coren et al., 2013), as younger or older children (Evans, 2006; Aptekar, 1988), as children who live in slums (Ennew, 2000), as ‘beggars’, ‘street dwellers’, ‘vagrants’, ‘rugby boys’, ‘homeless people’ and ‘street nomads’ (Scerri, 2009), or as street-working and street-living children (Conticini, 2005). The empirical study in Tondo has shown that even if children are young, perform similar livelihood activities, live in the same area, or have similar types of family connections, this does not imply that these children have similar experiences and realities, or that they have similar needs.

In Tondo, as is illustrated in Figure 18, the police classify a child on the street as a ‘street child’ solely based on their appearance or their livelihood activities. No justice is done to a child’s personal circumstance, or the specific reason for sleeping or working on the street. Creating such a ‘street children’ category poses the risk of presenting homogeneous and marginalizing representations of all children who spend their lives on the street. This thesis has shown that categorizing children in this way does not capture their realities. It has also demonstrated the diversities in children’s circumstances, making it impossible to perceive all children who sleep or work on the street as similar.

Figure 18: A picture taken by one of the children that shows JM taking a nap when he is working during the night. Sufficient reason for the police to categorize this child as a ‘street child’.

By examining children’s life trajectories, issues of temporality and fluidity became evident. As Ursin (2013) points out, when studying children’s lives on the street, it is rarely about either being on the streets or staying at home, but rather a continuous process of coming and going. When studying children on the streets of Tondo, it is important to avoid divisions between the children living in their homes and children living in public spaces, between going to school and working on the street, and between ‘entering’ and ‘exiting’ street life. In Tondo, it is crucial to recognize the fluidity of children’s lives and experiences.

Overall, the study in Tondo provided in-depth, contextual, and comprehensive empirical data to support and substantiate the conclusion that children in street situations live far from heterogeneous lives. By studying the lives of children in street situations in Tondo as street careers, this thesis illustrated a range of different children with diverse, needs and experiences that differ due to characteristics, relationships, work, and many other aspects of a child’s life. By showing this variety of findings and experiences, I showed that it is not possible to categorize children based on their drug use, their work activities, their physical appearance, or their sleeping place. When studying or understanding the lives and experiences of the children in Tondo, it is important to listen to the perspectives of the children, to the only ones who experience these realities.

Recommendations for Policymakers in Tondo Whilst there is valuable work currently being undertaken to improve the situation of children in street situations in Tondo, more could be and needs to be done. To improve the well-beings of the children in Tondo who live and work on the streets, who face multiple challenges in meeting their basic needs and realizing the rights that they are entitled to, policies and programs require long-term involvement, children’s participation, and child-centered ethnographic research. What became clear from talking to the children was that, in order to understand children’s lives and situations on the streets, it is important to listen to a child’s experiences and needs.

Based on my empirical findings, I have created the following recommendations: (1) Overall, there is a strong need to stop the repressive ‘rescues’ that are performed by the Philippine government. To do so, there is a need for NGOs to create effective partnerships with government organizations. (2) There is a need to increase the effectiveness in targeting children in different street situations in Tondo. From the findings of the empirical study, it became clear that almost none of the children who participated were familiar with the NGOs I interviewed. This is remarkable, as these NGOs are not more than a few minutes away from where most of these children live. NGOs need to find a way to advocate their programs to the children that need or want to participate in them. (3) To improve the ways NGOs target the children in Tondo, the involvement of children as valuable and worthy agents of change is crucial to understand the varying situations and needs of children on the street. Children have individual agency, needs, and experiences, which should be studied and taken into account when designing policy aiming to improve their well-being. (4) To overcome the language barrier and cultural differences, research with children in Tondo should be conducted by someone, preferably a Filipino, who is familiar with the Filipino culture and habits. When a Filipino is conducting the research, it may also be possible for him or her to spend time with children during the night, to understand and observe the aspects of their lives which I was not able to examine. (5) Include family, and if possible peers, in project activities, as there are many children in Tondo with strong family and peer affiliations. As was discussed in Chapter one, Maclure and Sotelo (2014) argue that social capital as a conceptual basis for policies and activities could provide an alternative to exclusionary policies on ‘street children’. Policies and activities that use social capital as a conceptual basis contribute in generating opportunities for children in enhancing their resilience in challenges and risks they face in their daily lives (Maclure & Sotelo, 2014), and according to Conticini (2005), when NGOs ignore the strength of a child’s social ties, this could be perceived by children as disrespectful interference in their efforts to build alternative social relationships. A social capital framework in policies and practices of NGOs in Tondo allows examining and understanding the importance of social ties of children in street situations in the Philippines.

7.3 Theoretical Contributions of Thesis A central theoretical element of this thesis is the development of the ‘street careers’ framework. To recapitulate, the framework builds on the concept of a ‘street career’. This concept originated from Goffman’s (1961) notion of a ‘career’ and has been used by numerous scholars to explain various aspects of the lives of children in street situations. As was mentioned in Chapter one, in studying lives as ‘street careers’, this thesis is not unique. Evans (2006) urged scholars to ethnographically study children’s lives as ‘street careers’ over a decade ago. Yet, in the years following Evans’ study, not much progress had been made in understanding the diverse and heterogeneous street careers of children in street situations. One reason for this is because an approach on how to comprehensively study the street careers of children in various situations remained absent. This is where this thesis takes a further step. The contribution to scholarly understanding of this thesis lies in the expansion of the existing ‘street careers’ concept to a ‘street careers’ framework. The framework offers an approach that examines the heterogeneities in children’s lives on the street, that enables to study their lives comprehensively, and that does justice to a child’s agency. When applying the ‘street careers’ framework in other context this could possibly uncover new and unexpected findings and observations of children’s lives on the street.

The ‘street careers’ framework with its three main pillars as building blocks: social identity, livelihoods, and life trajectories, offered an approach that moves beyond studying aspects of children’s lives towards more contextual and in-depth understandings of children’s lives on the street. From studies on aspects of children’s lives, it became clear that there is a gap between children’s understanding of their experiences and realities, and the ways adults and researchers interpret, and represent children’s experiences and realities (de Benítez, 2011; de Conticini, 2008; Whitehead et al, 2008). The ‘street careers’ framework inherently urges the need for child-centered ethnographic research methods, and offers a first step in reducing the gap between the realities of children and that of adults. Where studies often refer to children on the street, erroneously, as one homogeneous group of marginalized children with constant, linear circumstances (Aptekar & Heinonen, 2003), the framework brings in notions such as age, temporality, gender, fluidity, and individuality. In this way, a step is made towards perceiving children in street situations more as individuals rather than as groups with similar experiences. Clearly, it is not possible to interview or study each individual child in a particular context. Yet, studying lives as ‘street careers’ refuses to generalize experiences based on children’s characteristics, work, or living space and emphasized diversities in realities.

Recommendations for Academics Aiming to study the Lives of Children in Street Situations The ‘street careers’ framework should be seen as a first attempt to capture the understanding of children’s heterogeneous and individual experiences and realities comprehensively. Based on the theoretical conclusions and findings, I created the following recommendations for scholars aiming to comprehensively study the lives of children in street situations as ‘street careers’: (1) Overall, there is a strong need for further ethnographic research on children’s lives on the street. According to the Consortium for Street Children, research on children in street situations has been fragmented, hard to access and underused in the development of policies concerning these particular children (Consortium for Street Children, 2017). It is important to place more attention on a child’s individual situation and needs and to examine and strengthen the link between knowledge production and policy-making. (2) An aspect which was not addressed in the ‘street careers’ framework is the influence of religion and cultural habits. When aiming to comprehensively studying the lives of children in a particular context, it is important to include and examine the context in which these children are living. (3) There is a need for more ethnographic research that contest the stereotypes of ‘street children’ that are present in numerous academic articles. Children should be studied as players that are moving towards social integration, not as children bound by social exclusion. By focusing on a child’s agency and resilience through studying their lives as street careers, there is a great need to emphasize, and substantiate this with ethnographic research, that children’s experiences are fluid, depending on a child’s characteristics and circumstances. These variations should be studied more extensively. (4) A final recommendation lies in the need for more longitudinal studies with more participatory methods. The ‘street careers’ framework should be used as a framework that is adaptable to the context in which it will be applied, and adaptable to the needs of the children in that particular context. (5) Finally, there is a great need to include the voices of children in the construction of a ‘street careers’ framework. They are the ones who have the most knowledge of their lives, and are most aware of the context they live in. Let me finish this recommendation, and end this thesis with a quote from a fourteen-year-old girl in Tondo who said: ‘There is no place like Tondo.’ - And she is right, there is not.

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Appendices

Appendix A: List of All Respondents

# Name Gender Age Location Type Date 1 Carl Male 15 Crisis Center, Unstructured September 2, Bahay Tuluyan Interview September 5 2 Moteh Male 20 ‘Guard’ office, Unstructured September 5, Bahay Tuluyan Interview September 15, September 20 3 Ena Monter Female - Her office, Unstructured September 15 Bahay Tuluyan Interview 4 Catherine Female - Her office, Semi-Structured September 21, Scerri Bahay Tuluyan Interview September 24, September 28 5 Donnalyne Female - Stairway Semi-Structured September 26 UBaccay Foundation, Interview Malate Manila 6 Annalyn Female 12 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 24 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Life-phase October 30 Drawing 7 Kulot Female 12 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 24 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Life-phase October 30 Drawing 8 Yhanie Male 10 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 24 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Digital November 15, Storytelling November 16, project November 24 9 CJ Male 10 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 24 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Life-phase October 30 Drawing 10 Vicenta Female 12 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 25 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Life-phase October 30 Drawing 11 Benjia Male 10 Arcelie’s house, Semi-Structured October 25 Happy Land Interview Tondo & & Digital November 24 Risa’s house, Storytelling Happy Land project 12 Jaimé Male 14 Arcelie’s house, Semi-Structured October 25

Happy Land Interview Tondo & Digital November 24 Storytelling 13 Jelvin Male +/-10 Arcelie’s house, Semi-Structured October 26 Happy Land Interview Tondo 14 Marjie Female 11 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 26 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Life-phase October 30 Drawing 15 Mary Rose Female 13 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 27 Happy Land Interview Tondo & & Focus Group November 30 Rizal Park & Malate, Manila Life-phase October 30 Drawing 16 Jezra Female 12 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 27 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Life-phase October 30 Drawing 17 Rowella Female 14 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 27 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Life-phase October 30 Drawing 18 Rosal Female 15 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 28 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Life-phase October 30 Drawing 19 Aprilyn Female 14 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 29 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Life-phase October 30 Drawing 20 Princess Female 12 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured October 29 Happy Land Interview Tondo & & Focus Group November 30 Rizal Park & Malate, Manila Life-phase October 30 Drawing 21 Elyo Male 14 Junkshop, Semi-Structured November 4 Aroma Tondo Interview & Digital November 16 Storytelling project 22 Treb Male 15 Junkshop, Semi-Structured November 4 Aroma Tondo Interview&

& Digital November 18 Rizal Park Storytelling Malate, Manila project& November 30 Focus Group 23 JM Male 11 Junkshop, Semi-Structured November 4 Aroma Tondo Interview 24 Chito Male 16 Junkshop, Semi-Structured November 4 Aroma Tondo Interview & Digital November 16 Storytelling project & Focus Group 25 Jose Male 10 Junkshop, Semi-Structured November 4 Aroma Tondo Interview 26 Jeawn Female 14 Under the bridge, Semi-Structured November 17 Tondo Interview 27 Rey Male 17 In the streets, Semi-Structured November 17 ‘Permanent’ Interview Tondo 28 Ronnel Male 16 Building 33, Semi-Structured November 22 Aroma Tondo Interview 29 Magradi Male 18 Outside, Smokey Semi-Structured November 23 Mountain Tondo Interview 30 Dari Female 18 Outside, Smokey Semi-Structured November 23 Mountain Tondo Interview 31 Chesa Female 17 Outside, Semi-Structured November 28 Building 2, Interview Happy Land & Tondo Digital December 7 Storytelling project 32 Jane Female 17 Outside, Semi-Structured November 28 Building 2, Interview Happy Land & Tondo Digital December 7 Storytelling project 33 Manilyn Female 18 Outside, Semi-Structured November 29 Building 2, Interview Happy Land & Tondo Digital December 7 Storytelling project 34 Joriz Male 18 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured December 5 Happy Land Interview Tondo & Digital December 10 Storytelling project 35 Genevie Female 18 Risa’s house, Semi-Structured December 5 Happy Land Interview

Tondo # Name Gender Age Location Type Date 38 Project Pearls Male - Project Pearls Semi-Structured December 12 Foundation, Interview Happy Land Tondo 39 4P for People Female - 4P, Happy Land Semi-Structured December 12 Tondo Interview 40 Wabel Female - Young Focus, Semi-Structured December 13 Animoza, Tondo Interview 41 Saint Martin Female - Office Saint Semi-Structured December 13 Martin Interview Foundation, Happy Land Tondo 42 Alexander Male 14 Rizal Park Focus Group November 30 Malate, Manila 43 Chris Male 18 Rizal Park Focus Group November 30 Malate, Manila 44 Benedict Male 13 Rizal Park Focus Group November 30 Malate, Manila 45 Jobal Male 17 Rizal Park Focus Group November 30 Malate, Manila 46 Jolina Female 13 Rizal Park Focus Group November 30 Malate, Manila 47 Likha Female 11 Rizal Park Focus Group November 30 Malate, Manila

Appendix B: Interview Guide Children

Personal Questions - How old are you? - When is your birthday? - Do you go to school? If no, why did you quit? - Do you have a nickname? - How does a normal day for you look like? - Where do you live? (With parents, family/without) - Why have you left home?

Livelihoods - How do you survive? - Type of coping mechanisms - What kind of work do you perform? - How does a normal ‘work’ day look like? - Does age determine your work? - Have you always done the work you are doing now? - At what age is making money the most difficult? - Is earning money more difficult for younger or older children? Why? - What kind of work activities do younger children normally do/and older? - How does your age influence your survival? - Where do you spend your money on?

Social Identity - Are you part of a group? - What makes your group different from others? - How/where did you meet your friends? - What age are your friends? - What type of work do they do? - What is unacceptable behavior in your group of friends? - Does being a part of a group help you to survive? - What does friendship mean to you? - How do you and your friends help each other? - Do you have family? Parents/siblings? - How is your relationship with your family? - How often are you at home?

- What do people think of ‘street children’? - Do you think this varies per age? - How do people call you?

Life Trajectories - When did you start spending more time on the street? - What do you do for fun? - What do you do during the day/night? - What do you like about Tondo? What do you not like about Tondo? - Safe/Dangerous Place - What are the best moments of the day/the worst? - Have you ever stayed in a shelter? - Have you ever been rescued by the police? If yes, how did this go? - Do you engage with NGOs? - Have you ever been in contact with the Barangay/police? - What are your biggest dreams? - Do you experience movement between street and home?

Appendix C: Interview Guide NGO-Employees

- How do you select the children for your programs? - How do you define ‘street children’? - What are the aims of your programs? - What kind of activities does your NGO perform? - Who do you include in your programs? - How do you exclude children from your programs? - What type of approach drives activities? (Rights based, protective, reactive?) - What are short and long-term goals? - Do goals differ for children in different circumstances? - How balance protection and participation rights? - How are children able to participate? - How are children’s voices listened to? - How do you define participation?