Background and Theory

Abstract

My dream is a world in which all young people have equal opportunities to explore their talents to the fullest, but sadly, the reality at moment is a world with most of them being deprived of the basic resources necessary for smooth development. This book aims at highlighting the plight of the street children of sub-Saharan Africa, with some presently living in the shadow of Boko Haram. Much of the story is told in the words of the children and youth. The strongest contribution in this book is the resilience enhancement project of street children. Chapter 1 begins with an introductory section aimed at explaining the entire scope of the book. This was followed by the definition of street children and youth with emphasis on “children and youth on the street’ and children and youth of the street” as defined by UNICEF. This is because there exist many definitions of street children and youth but the book is written based on the definition by UNICEF. This chapter also looks at the global situation of street children and youth. This helps the audiences to have a clear picture of the situation of street children in the world and to wipe off the ignorance some people have that, street children are limited to the developing world. In addition, there are definitions of variables and explanations of theories which would help in the understanding of the studies in the book. The variables are; automatic thought, child hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. The most important theory of child development use in the book is the bio-ecological theory by Bronfenbrenner. It has been applied alongside with the resilience theory of Ungar for a child must not be perfectly provided with the favorable idealized conditions emphasized in the bio-ecological model. This is because in normal life processes, a child needs to counteract some adversities as he or she develops into a mature individual.