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UNVERSITY OF GHANA 
COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES 
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK 
 
 
THE EXPERIENCES AND VIEWS OF CHILDREN ASSISTING ADULT BEGGARS 
ON THE STREETS OF ACCRA, GHANA 
 
 
BY 
PHYLLIS ODARKAI TORPEY 
(10168566) 
 
 
THIS THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON IN 
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF 
MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE IN SOCIAL WORK 
 
 
JULY, 2016
 
 
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DECLARATION 
I, Phyllis Odarkai Torpey, do hereby declare that with the exception of the references duly 
cited, this thesis titled “The experiences and views of children assisting adult beggars on the 
streets of Accra, Ghana” was entirely conducted by me in the Department of Social Work, 
University of Ghana, Legon under the supervision of Dr. Kwabena Frimpong-Manso and Dr. 
Emma Hamenoo. This work has never been presented in part or full to any other Department 
or Institution for any academic activity. 
 
SIGNATURE: ………………………………             DATE…………………………….            
PHYLLIS ODARKAI TORPEY 
(CANDIDATE) 
 
SIGNATURE: ………………………………              DATE…………………………… 
DR. K. FRIMPONG-MANSO 
(SUPERVISOR) 
 
SIGNATURE:…………………………….               DATE…………………………… 
DR. EMMA S. HAMENOO 
(CO- SUPERVISOR)  
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DEDICATION 
This work is dedicated to Almighty God who has given me the strength and the ability to be 
able to make it this far and to my supervisor Dr. K. Frimpong-Manso, who inspired me to do 
this work. 
 
 
 
 
 
  
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
I want to thank the Almighty God for his abundant grace upon my life and for giving me 
knowledge, wisdom and understanding to complete this work.  
I am also grateful to the Department of Social Work, University of Ghana, for the opportunity 
given me to come up with this work. I express my warmest gratitude to my supervisors, Dr. 
Kwabena Frimpong-Manso and Dr. Emma S. Hamenoo. I cannot  thank  them  enough  for  
devoting  their  time  and  other resources to help me come up with a good thesis.  The 
sleepless nights, their words of encouragement and the force to make me deliver, brought me 
this far. I ask that God bless them immensely for their hard work, love and kindness. 
I could not have done this without the support and encouragement from my husband Josiah 
Torpey, my children Herman and Esther Torpey as well as my mum, my dad, my sisters 
Betty, Pat, Prudence and my brother Percy. I thank them very much. God bless them all. I 
also extend my warmest gratitude to my Godmother, Dr Mrs. Cynthia Sottie, for her 
encouragement and support. My gratitude also goes to my friend Isaac Nooni for his support 
and help during this work. I want to finally express my appreciation to my course mates for 
their helpful suggestions and other forms of support during our course of study. I would not 
have made it this far without them. 
 
 
 
 
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ABSTRACT 
Many children in Ghana do not enjoy their childhood because of poverty and other socio-
economic factors that force them to become street children. Among such children are those 
who aide adult beggars. Working and/or living on the streets as aides to adult beggars come 
with several challenges such as the children having to provide their own survival needs as 
well as the needs of the adult beggars they aide. There are extensive literatures on the 
experiences of street children in general. However, little is known about the daily lives of 
children who are aides to adult beggars. To bridge this gap in literature, the current study 
examines the experiences of children used as aides to adult beggars in Greater Accra. It 
explores the factors that influence the children to become aides to adult beggars; the activities 
they perform; and the challenges that confront them. 
 
The study adopted a qualitative research design and data was collected using semi-structured 
interview, and was analysed using the analytical framework by UK National Centre for 
Social Research (Richie & Lewis, 2003). The researcher interviewed 15 children. The 
findings of the study revealed that parental disability and abandonment are factors that drive 
children to become aides. Children also perform care-giving roles and are confronted with 
numerous challenges which include their inability to attend school. Based on the findings, the 
study recommended that for children, who aide adult beggars as a result of parental disability, 
government through the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection should ensure 
that parents receive LEAP cash transfers. In addition, street corner education by Catholic 
Action for Street Children (Save the children, 2006) could be intensified and supported by 
government to provide children with some educational opportunities. Furthermore, Non-
governmental organizations (NGO) that work with street children such as Assemblies of God 
Relief Agency can provide short term relief such as mosquito nets or a place they can sleep. 
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Content          Page 
DECLARATION....................................................................................................................... i 
DEDICATION.......................................................................................................................... ii 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................... iii 
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. iv 
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ v 
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... vii 
CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................... 1 
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 1 
1.1 Background ...................................................................................................................... 1 
1.2 Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................. 3 
1.3 Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 4 
1.4 Research Questions .......................................................................................................... 4 
1.5 Significance of the Study ................................................................................................. 4 
1.6 Organization of the Chapters............................................................................................ 5 
1.7 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 6 
LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................... 7 
2.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 7 
2.1 Factors that Influence Children to the Street .................................................................... 7 
2.2 Activities Performed By Street Children ....................................................................... 15 
2.3 Challenges Confronted by Street Children..................................................................... 17 
2.4 Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................. 19 
2.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 24 
CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................... 25 
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................... 25 
3.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 25 
3.1 Research Design ............................................................................................................. 25 
3.2 The Study Area............................................................................................................... 25 
3.3 Study Population ............................................................................................................ 26 
3.4 Sampling Technique ....................................................................................................... 26 
3.5 Sample Size .................................................................................................................... 27 
3.6 Sources of Data and Data Collection ............................................................................. 28 
3.7 Data Handling and Analysis ........................................................................................... 29 
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3.8 Ethical Consideration ..................................................................................................... 30 
3.9 Credibility and Trustworthiness of Qualitative Research Design .................................. 31 
3.10 Limitations of the Study ............................................................................................... 32 
3.11 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 33 
PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS ....................................................................................... 34 
4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 34 
4.1 Demographic Characteristics of Participants ................................................................. 34 
4.2 Factors that Influenced Children as Aides to Adult Beggars ......................................... 35 
4.2.1 Parental Disability and Abandonment………………………………………….. 35 
4.2.2 Business Purposes…………………………………………………………………37 
4.3 Activities Children Perform as Aides Adult Beggars .................................................... 39 
4.3.1 Care Giving Roles…………………………………………………………………40 
4.3.2 Assisting on the Streets……………………………………………………………41 
4.4. Challenges that are confronted by Children as Aides to Adult Beggars ....................... 43 
4.4.1 Emotional Challenge……………………………………………………………. 43 
4.4.2 Physical Challenge (Stress)……………………………………………………... 44 
4.4.3 Physical Challenge (Safety Concerns) …………………………………………. 45 
4.4.4 Health Challenges……………………………………………………………….. 46 
4.4.5 Educational Challenge………………………………………………………….. 49 
4.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 50 
DISCUSSIONS, SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............. 52 
5.0. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 52 
5.1 Discussions of Findings ................................................................................................. 52 
5.2 Summary of Findings ..................................................................................................... 64 
5.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 67 
5.4 Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 68 
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 73 
APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................. 83 
GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR BEGGARS’ AIDES ........................................................... 83 
 
  
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LIST OF FIGURES 
Figure 1: Ecological Theory Diagram ............................................................................. 23 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER ONE 
INTRODUCTION 
1.1 Background 
The concept of a street child is defined variously by researchers and organizations. For 
example, some definitions are based on the degree of family involvement and the 
amount of deviant behaviour the child exhibits (Cosgrove, 1990). Others also define 
street children by categorising them into different groups. Initially, street children were 
put into two major groups. Children living on the streets are one category of street 
children who live permanently on the streets without returning home. The second 
category, children off the streets or street working children, spend a considerable 
number of hours on the streets to work but return home mostly to spend the 
night (Thomas de Benitez, 2011). A third category of street children has emerged in 
recent years. These are children who are on the streets with their parents or relatives. For 
some of these children, they are born on the streets and have spent all their lives there 
(UNICEF, 2005). However, this study adopts the United Nations International 
Children‟s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) definition which states that a street child is any  
girl or boy who lives and/or works on the street without the supervision of a responsible 
adult (UNICEF, 2005).  
 
There are no single causes for children living and working on the streets but rather a 
combination of economic, social, political, and cultural factors (Kebede, 2015). 
Empirical studies attribute streetism to poverty and family pressure, orphan hood, peer 
influence, and migration (Aransiola, Bamiwuye, Akinyemi, Ikuteyijo, 2009; Kyaoya 
2014; Oduro, 2013; Tatek, 2008.)  
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Street children often involve themselves in several activities such as doing menial jobs, 
selling, stealing and begging, in order to survive. In addition, street children encounter 
countless physical, sexual, and psychological abuses or even death in countries 
(UNICEF, 2006; 2007; 2012; OHCHR, 2011). As such child rights instruments 
including the  Convention on the Rights of the Child and  African  Charter  on  the  
Rights  and  Welfare  of  the  Child, which Ghana is a signatory to, all contain 
statements that prohibit the use of children for begging purposes (OAU, 1999). In 
addition, the primary Ghanaian law protecting children, the 1998 Children‟s Act (ACT 
560), also specifies in Section 18 that children who accompany people to beg or receive 
alms, whether or not there is any pretense of singing, playing, performing, offering 
anything for sale or otherwise needs, should be considered in need of protection from 
the state.  
 
To deal with the growing numbers of street children, several governmental and non-
governmental organizations have been set-up to prevent and promote the reunification of 
children with their birth families. Organizations such as Street Girls Aid and Catholic 
Action for Street Children, are all in existence to fight against children being on the 
streets. Notwithstanding these efforts, it is disheartening to note that there are still many 
children who have fallen in-between the cracks of the welfare system and find 
themselves on the streets.  It is against this background that the current study sought to 
investigate the experience street children go through daily as aides to adult beggars on 
the streets of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. 
 
 
 
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1.2 Statement of the Problem 
Living or working on the streets can have implication on the children‟s wellbeing such 
as their health and education (Kankam- Boadi, 2013; Osa- Edoh & Ayano, 2012). The 
issue of children living on the streets is of much concern in many developing countries 
including Ghana because of the large numbers involved. According to the Department of 
Social Welfare (2011), over 90,000 children in Ghana live and work on the streets. 
These children survive on the margins of society, living in inhumane conditions, 
suffering from hunger, harassment, and physical abuse (Kankam-Boadu, 2013). Their 
activities do not only affect these children but the development of the nation since their 
contributions may either retard or enhance future development. 
 
In recent years, an emerging variation of street children is those who are used by adults 
to beg. Research in Mali and Senegal has highlighted that children (known as talibés) 
attend Qur‟anic schools where they are forced by their instructors to beg on the streets to 
secure their survival and enrich their teachers (African Committee of Experts on the 
Rights and Welfare of the Child Report, 2012). In Ghana, an increasing number of 
children aide physically and visually challenged adults to solicit for alms. Anecdotal 
evidence suggests that for some children, being aides is a full-time job for which they 
are paid. They do this at the expense of their education and safety. Yet a review of the 
literature revealed that little is known about the experiences of this subgroup of street 
children who have to manage their needs as well as those of the adults they assist. The 
absence of information on these children makes it difficult to plan social interventions to 
support them. This study explores the experiences and views of children who aide adult 
beggars on the streets of Accra, Ghana. 
 
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1.3 Objectives 
The main objective of this study is to explore the experiences of children used as aide to 
adult beggars. The study sought to: 
1. Find out the factors that influence children to aide adult beggars on the streets of 
Accra.  
2. Explore the activities that children perform when they aide adult beggars on the 
streets of Accra.   
3. Investigate the challenges confronting children who aide adult beggars on the 
streets of Accra 
 
1.4 Research Questions 
The research sought to answer the following questions; 
 What are the major factors that influence children to aide adult beggars on the 
street of Accra? 
 What activities do children perform when they aide adult beggars on the street of 
Accra?  
 What challenges confront children when they aide adult beggars on the streets of 
Accra? 
 
1.5 Significance of the Study 
The study contributes to knowledge on street children by filling a gap in the literature. 
Most African and Ghanaian studies generally focus on child beggars and street 
children.   The study throws more light on a growing phenomenon by providing 
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evidence on the activities and challenges children serving as aides to adult street beggars 
as well as laying the foundation for a larger quantitatively oriented study. 
 
Additionally, the study provides information and recommendations that will hopefully 
inform formulation of appropriate policy relating to families and children. It will help 
policy makers develop social interventions programs and social protection that will 
address the factors and challenges of vulnerable children and their families who live on 
the streets. Existing social intervention programs specifically catering for adult with 
disability and their aides can be reinforced. 
 
Finally, the study will contribute to developing new knowledge concerning this 
subgroup of street children which will help practitioners, including social workers who 
work with street children in their practices. The results from this study could serve a 
reference material for academic literature. 
 
1.6. Organization of the Chapters 
This study is presented in five chapters. Chapter one introduces the study by providing 
background information on street children and highlighting the main issues of concern 
through the problem statement. It also lists the objectives and the research questions that 
guide the focus of the study. Fin 
ally talks about the significance of the study and the organization of the chapters. 
Chapter two reviews literature on the concept and definition of street children, factors 
that push or pull children to the streets, the experiences of street children which involved 
their activities and their challenges.  
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Chapter three presents the methods and processes used in the selection of participants 
for the study and in gathering and analysing the data. Chapter four presents the findings 
and discussions. Finally chapter five summarises the findings, draws conclusions based 
on the findings and makes recommendation, based on the conclusions drawn. 
 
1.7 Conclusion 
This study explored the experiences of children used as aides to adult beggars on the 
streets in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. The main objectives were to find out the 
factors that influence the children to become aides to adult beggars, the activities they 
performed on the streets with these beggars and additionally, to explore the challenges 
that confronted them in this line of duty. The researcher defined research questions 
specific to the objectives as well as stated the significance of the study.  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER TWO 
LITERATURE REVIEW 
2.0 Introduction 
The chapter reviews general literature on street children and child beggars because 
literatures on child aides to adult beggars are scarce. The theme based review focuses on 
existing studies relating to the study's objectives and research questions. Literature was 
reviewed under the following topics: the experiences of street children, and the factors 
that influence them unto the streets. The review also looked at the activities that children 
undertake while living and/or working on the streets, challenges of street children and 
some theoretical perspectives relevant for studies on street children. The review focused 
on developing countries. 
 
2.1 Factors that Influence Children to the Street 
Streetism and begging among children although not a new concept, has become a 
prominent problem especially in the developing countries. The appreciation of this 
problem has necessitated studies to be undertaken on the subject. Many factors have 
been attributed to children living or working on the streets. These include economic, 
social, culture and political factors. The economic factor is a common finding in many 
studies. In a study by Namwata, Mgabo and Dimosa (2012) undertaken in Tanzania, it 
was found that children are compelled to live or work on the streets as a result of 
economic hardship in their families. This means that poverty as a problem has served as 
a push factor for children who face economic hardship to move and fend for themselves 
on the street. Commenting on economic hardship as a factor for streetism, Abebe‟s 
(2009) study in Ethiopia asserts that Children beg to raise income which supplements 
the incomes of their families. This Abebe (2009) assertion, is more common in homes 
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which are headed by one parent (Female). This shows that although economic hardship 
is a common factor for streetism in many families in different regions, the nature of the 
leadership in the family also influences children‟s decision to engage in economic 
activities such as begging on the streets. This assertion also proves that children who 
find themselves in poor households have a socially meaningful and valuable economic 
role to play for the survival of not only themselves but the family as a whole.  
 
However, literature also shows the decision to be on the streets is sometimes not the 
preserve of children in poverty-stricken households, especially in developing countries 
where children‟s rights are trampled upon due to factors such as poverty and culture. 
This view is captured in Muchinako, Chikwaiwa and Nyanguru‟s (2013) study which 
was conducted on street children in Zimbabwe. In their study, they reported that children 
had no option than to accompany their parents/caregivers unto the streets because they 
were poor and lived at informal and unregulated settlements.  
 
The economic motivator to streetism is not only experienced in developing countries in 
southern Africa but in other sub-regions in the African continent. This is because 
poverty or economic hardship is a common problem in all developing countries. In 
Ghana, a West African country, the quest for economic freedom has motivated some 
children to flock on the streets to engage in economic activities. According to Ghana‟s 
Department of Social welfare et al. (2011), some children in Ghana migrate from the 
rural communities into urban centers to work in order to raise some money to better their 
living situation. Social welfare et al. (2011) further postulated that these children‟s 
decision to engage in streetism is as a result of their perception of the fact that they do 
not have a viable future ahead. With such perception, these children move into the 
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streets of the cities to find ends means although they may have no shelter on the streets. 
In a study conducted in Ghana by Wedadu (2013) on begging, found that child-adult 
partnership is influenced by socio-economic factors that define livelihood opportunities 
and constraints especially for the disabled. According to Wedadu (2013), persons with 
disability are considered at all level, family, society and the state as poor and needy 
worthy of external assistance in the form of alms, these  have  in  various ways  
interacted  and  contributed  in  rendering  the  disabled  almost  nonproductive thereby  
legitimizing  begging as their only source of livelihoods. For some of the persons with 
disability especially the blind needing assistance to beg hire the services of children as 
their aides. 
 
More so, charitable donations given by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and 
private individuals also act as an additional economic factor that influences streetism. 
This conclusion was made in a study conducted by Kebede (2015) on the situation of 
street children in urban centers of Ethiopia. This study revealed that the services 
provided to street children by different NGOs attract children to live or work on the 
streets. This means some organizations are simply engaged in providing basic services 
for the children while they are living on the street. Such services make life easier for the 
children on the street, thereby giving them incentive to remain on the street or even 
attracting other children to street life.  
 
The literatures on the economic factors can be classified into push and pull factors. Push 
factors are the unattractive conditions in children‟s homes such economic hardship, 
which encourage the children to leave their homes to the street and the pull factors are 
the packages on the streets that are attractive to the children (Kebede, 2015; Muchinako 
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et al, 2013; Social Welfare et al., 2011). Studies done in Tanzania and Zimbabwe 
(Muchinako et al., 2013; Namwata et al., 2012) suggests that children were pushed onto 
the streets because of the hardship at home however research done in Ghana and 
Ethiopia (Abebe, 2009; Social Welfare et al., 2011) suggests that children were pulled 
onto the streets because of the economic freedom they will obtain as well as the services 
that were being render by non-governmental organizations.   
 
The second factor which is the social factors has contributed to children living and/or 
working on the streets. Family separation or divorce, most often, plays a key part in the 
street children phenomena. When parents remarry after a divorce, it becomes a problem 
for children especially children who are maltreated by their step parents so they move to 
the streets to find their freedom (DSW, 2011). This means that children move to the 
streets because they want to flee from the maltreatment they receive at home and they 
see the streets as a place they can obtain freedom and some level of peace. 
 
In addition, children who are abandoned by their parents through divorce opt to live or 
work on the streets in order to earn a livelihood. Namwata et al. (2012), found that the 
increasing numbers of family members living in either separation or divorce, death of a 
spouse often increased due to violence and abandonment when the parent remarries. 
Children from single families usually lack stable support and sometimes choose the 
streets as the better option in order to escape the problem at home. This shows that when 
the support in the family is broken and children do not receive the attention and 
supervision that parents are expected to give to their children, children opt for the streets 
considering it as a better option than living at home.  
 
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Further on social factors, children who are abused by their parents or guardians usually 
flee from their homes to the streets  either to live and/or work because that is the place 
they find some level of comfort and acceptance and are no longer subjected to the 
maltreated they face at home.  According to Muchinako et al. (2013), children who felt 
neglected by their parents felt that it was better for them to move to the streets. Also, 
children subjected to physical and emotional abuse either by their parents or step parents 
turned to the streets for relief.  A similar result was found in a study conducted in 
Trinidad and Tobago by Julien (2008), which found that when there is violence at home 
children are pushed to the streets and they can remain there for the rest of their lives.  
  
Aside children going to the streets because they were abandoned by their parents 
through death, divorce and violence at home, there are other families who also abandon 
their children because the child had a disability. The reason for some parents 
abandoning children with disability was due to the fact that the parents were unable to 
handle the extra care that their children required. The neglect by parents usually leave 
the children with disability no option than to depend on other people for their daily 
bread (Namwata et al., 2012).  This alludes to the fact that a child with disability living 
and working on the streets could remain on the streets for the rest of their lives. 
Additionally, Namwata et al. (2012) in their study found that some families do not 
educate children who have disability and this hinders their ability to obtain skills and 
knowledge further hindering their ability to find employment or become self-employed. 
These children are usually isolated and lack attention and the majority resort to begging.  
 
Parents who are addicted to drugs usually maltreat and neglect their children and these 
children resort to the streets for survival. Sorre and Oino (2013) found that a significant 
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number of the street children were attracted to the streets because of neglect or 
maltreatment by their parents who were addicted to drugs and/or alcohol consumption.  
Although some children lived/ or work on the streets because they were abandoned by 
their families due to the inability of the family economically supporting the children, 
divorce, death and step- parenting or drug addiction, there are other children who were 
on the streets because of the gradual integration they have on the streets. According to 
Strehl (2010) children end up on the streets as a result of their parents sending them to 
work on the streets, this however made them befriend other children on the streets 
leading them to become use to the freedom and the independence the street live offered 
them.  
 
Another factor which has contributed to streetism among children is culture.  In the past, 
the extended family cared for children who had been neglected by their parents or 
children whose parents had died. The extended family was also instrumental in the 
transmission of culture but the growth in modernization and urbanization has caused a 
breakdown in the extended family which was very strong in most developing countries 
(DSW et al., 2011; Muchinako et al., 2013; Sorre et al., 2013). In Ghana, the breakdown 
of the extended family system is as a result of modernization with the introduction of 
formal education and money economy. Commenting on the breakdown of the family 
system as a result of modernization, DSW et al. (2011) opine that Ghanaians depended 
largely on the extended family system for survival but modernization have greatly 
affected the role and function of the traditional family system which served as a support 
unit for children when their parents died.  
 
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 The growth in demographic and socio-economic change due to urbanization and 
modernization, has caused family and family life to undergo considerable change, 
altering its composition and structure of families in our societies and is generally 
splitting up to such an extent that it is failing to fulfill its primary role of socialization 
(Sorre et al., 2013). Additionally, Sorre et al. (2013) observed that industrialization and 
modernization have caused interferences in the family structure and has weakened the 
family institution making much focus on individual parenting. In the past the family 
institution was solid and not only was it for procreation but also the development of 
culture.  This shows that the family as a self-enabling institution was instrumental in the 
socialization process but this system is eroding off as economic pressures on families 
prevent them from helping others. These days when individuals have problem, they 
depend on their own resources for solution.  
 
Corporal punishment is viewed as a way to discipline children. Children are not 
supposed to have a voice and when they go wrong they are beaten. Instances where 
corporal punishment becomes too much especially in school, children do not enjoy 
going to school and some may drop out of school hence end up on the streets. According 
to Aransiola et al. (2009), corporal punishment is upheld in Nigeria to punish children to 
be disciplined in a school. In Schools where there are regular beaten or verbal abuses, 
vulnerable children do not enjoy school and may therefore opt for the streets.   
 
Finally, political factors which includes civil unrest, wars, corrupt governments results 
in the increase of street children (Khaoye, 2014; Kopyegon, 2015).  When there are wars 
families get separated and children are left on their own to survive. Also political unrest 
deteriorates the economy thereby causing high rate of unemployment and families are 
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unable to care for their children thereby forcing children to the streets. Khaoye (2014) in 
his study found that children ended up on the streets because the families were displaced 
in tribal wars and their parents‟ house and properties were burnt hence they found it 
difficult to support the family. Again some children‟s parents were killed during civil 
unrest thereby leaving the children to survive on their own (Khaoye, 2014).  
 
When there is bad leadership or governance coupled with hardship in the economy it 
leads to civil and tribal wars resulting in family displacement and increased number of 
children living on the streets. In addition, when a society undergoes political and 
economic change it leaves most citizens displaced and unable to cope with the rapid 
change (Sorre et al., 2013). According to Sorre et al. (2013) a large number of people 
are displaced through political violence, social and ethnic clashes, and displacement by 
evacuation to create space for investment, security, conservation of forests resources and 
other reasons, are not uncommon scenes in Kenya. The affected families get disoriented, 
some are separated, many are deprived, and consequently, children become vulnerable 
and join street life.  
 
The literatures on the factors that influence children onto the street are abundant 
however most of studies are on street children in general and the studies on child 
begging focuses on independent child beggars yet there are other street children who are 
aides to adult beggars on the streets. The general categorization of the factors that push 
and pulls children unto the streets which includes economic (poverty), social (the 
disintegration of the family) culture (the breakdown of the extended family system and 
peer pressure) and political factors (the displacement of families due to tribal wars) to a 
large extent precludes other forces that may play a part in influencing other children‟s 
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lives on the streets that is children as aides to adult beggar. Their lived experience is 
however not captured in most of the literatures. 
 
2.2. Activities Performed By Street Children 
Surviving on the streets means that children have to involve themselves in several 
activities which includes begging, carrying, car washing, drug trafficking, juggling, 
performing music, running errands, scavenging, sex work, and shoe shining or vending 
(Abebe, 2009; Muchinako et al., 2013). Begging has been captured by most of the 
literature on street children and child begging as a common activity performed by 
children on major streets, because it enables them to meet their daily needs. The strategy 
used in begging however differs in most developing countries.  In Ethiopia, children 
engage in begging either full time or part time and they beg by distributing notes and 
telling people about their plight. According to Abebe (2009), children use different 
approaches to beg, some beg individually and others beg in groups; new beggars have to 
patiently observe the other members in order to learn the styles of begging; and also 
there are some children who distribute notes about their plights and the supports they are 
seeking from the public.  
 
The situation is different in Zimbabwe because begging in Zimbabwe is characterized 
by a phenomenon where children are used by mothers to beg because they are of the 
belief that children induce greater sympathy from members of the public (Muchinako et 
al, 2013).  In the case of Senegal child beggars known as „Talibees‟ are put in Qua‟mic 
school and forced to beg by some instructors to secure their own survival and enrich the 
teachers. These children walk barefooted and carry bowls, roaming the motorway and 
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begging for money from passersby (African Committee of Experts on the Rights and 
Welfare of the Child, 2012).   
 
In India, because seeking and giving alms is an opportunity to do punya, children use 
the photographs of various Gods and ask people to give alms in the names of the Gods 
(Kaushik, 2014). In Ghana, begging is done through children and adult partnerships 
where persons with disability particularly the blind hire the services of children to serve 
as their aides/guides (Wedadu, 2013). This alludes to the fact that although begging 
takes different forms in many developing countries children perform this activity on 
their own will to be able to survive on the streets and others are also forced to perform 
this activity by their parents or guardians. 
 
Citing the activities children perform on the streets, Kebede (2015) found „shoe shining‟ 
as the most popular job for the street children. Many boys who engage in „shoe shining‟ 
have a fixed place and others are mobile in the city. The mobile „shoe shine‟ moves 
from place to place in order to get customers but they attract fewer customers because 
many people do not trust these boys as they are often perceived and accused of using 
inferior creams at the expense of the good ones (Kebede, 2015). Aside begging and shoe 
shining, street children, specifically girls, engage in prostitution. Girls engage in sex 
work because they see it as an easy way to make money and in some cases they are 
forced into prostitution by their street boyfriends to earn quick money in exchange for 
protection and affection (Strehl, 2010). Muchinako et al. (2013) found in their study in 
Zimbabwe that older children supplemented their incomes by engaging in commercial 
sex work. 
 
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In addition, there are girls from the northern part of Ghana who engage in head porting 
(known as Kayayei). They carry heavy loads in head pans that seems as though they are 
going to break their necks. They follow shoppers around and they spend much time and 
energy but get paid very little (DSW et al., 2011). Aside these activities, street children 
also take up jobs in the informal sector which includes working in shops, bars, restaurant 
and metal works (Strehl, 2010) 
 
2.3. Challenges Confronted by Street Children 
The upsurge of children on the street poses numerous challenges to the child. Street 
children are vulnerable to wide range of violations of their rights. They face emotional, 
physical, health and psychological challenges (Kebede, 2015, Strehl, 2010). Children 
living and/or working on the streets face physical challenges such as not having access 
to food and shelter. Street children mostly live on the little they earn, with no idea where 
their next food will be coming from because they depend largely on sympathizers 
(Muchinako et al., 2013).  Subarna, Biswas, Shikdar and Hassan (2014) opine that street 
children are mostly deprived of three squared meal a day and they also lack basic 
necessities in life such as shelter and security. Apart from street children not having 
access to food, they are physically abused on the streets by the police or parents. 
According to Aransiola et al. (2009), children on the streets are often subjected to 
physical abuse by the police, they are detained, tortured and beaten.  
 
A similar finding was reported by Moolla, Myburgh and Poggenpoel (2008) that street 
children experience aggression during interaction with the police, and also street 
children experience physical, verbal and sexual abuse accompanied by threats. Moolla et 
al. (2008) further explained that street children face verbal abuse from the people to 
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whom they extended their begging bowls. Many people have negative attitudes towards 
children who beg and regard them as obstacles or a total nuisance so some react in a 
rude manner to the request for alms from the children. As a result street children usually 
end up learning to use vulgar or foul language which they picked up from the public 
(Muchinako et al., 2013). 
 
Street children also face health challenges. The places they sleep and the activities they 
perform increase their health challenge. DSW et al. (2011) opine that malaria is very 
common among street children because they sleep in the open space and lorry parks. 
The authors further explained that street children suffer from cold because of their 
constant exposure to the unpredictable weather changes and they suffer skin diseases 
and infections from the place they sleep and the people they are in contact with and also 
lack of access to medical services often leads untreated cases of illness among them.  
 
Not only do children face health risk because of the places they sleep but the activities 
they perform also cause injury for them. For instance, children can be knocked down by 
vehicles on the street and the long hours of work in the sun cause them to fall ill 
frequently (Osa-Edoh & Ayano, 2012).  According to Muchinako et al. (2013), mothers 
who work on the streets usually leave their young children playing at dangerous 
environment without being supervised, and children face the risk of being involved with 
motor accident. The authors further opine that respiratory infections arising from carbon 
fumes from passing vehicles and contaminated dusts from the streets cause health risk 
for street children, in addition,  street children also face the risk of accidents or death in 
the event of stamped caused by the appearance of police pursuing illegal vendors or 
alleged thieves.  
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Further on the health challenges that street children face, Strelh (2010) found drug 
addiction among street children as a major challenge on their health. The author further 
went on to explain that homosexual was high among street children which increased 
their risk of contracting STIs. Females lured into cross generational sexual activities by 
peers or unscrupulous guardians, however exposed them to sexually transmitted 
infections including HIV and a variety of STIs (Muchinako et al., 2013). Asante and 
Meyer-Weitz (2015) reported that street girls are exposed to risky behaviors, ranging 
from sexual violence, abuse and rape. 
 
On the emotional challenge, the stigma and discrimination meted on street children by 
the public is a major problem. According to Strelh (2010), street children are very much 
aware of their social exclusion and stigma of being called, among others, “drug addicts”, 
“thieves”, “dirty”, “dangerous” and “spoilt”. The stigma is reflected in the nicknames 
they are given in society. They feel people are scared of them and they find these social 
prejudices as unjust and want to be treated as everyone else in society and to be 
accepted. 
 
The gap in the challenges is that most researchers gave general challenges of street 
children and children involved in street begging, but there are not many challenges that 
have been outlined for street children who are aides to adult beggars. 
 
2.4 Theoretical Framework 
Bronfenbrenner‟s ecological theory is employed as the theoretical framework 
underpinning this study. Urie Bronfenbrenner is one of the principal advocates of the 
ecological theory. The concept of the ecological theory was formulated in 1979 after 
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drawing upon the pioneering work of social psychologist Kurt Lewin (Bandura, 2001). 
This theory main focus is the interactive dynamics and relationships between a person, 
process and context over time (Berk, 2000). It is also useful for understanding and 
examining the complex interactions between a child and the various levels of the social 
systems (Paquette & Ryan, 2009).    
 
The theory states that child development can be understood in the context of the 
environments in which the child lives because of the mutual influences from family, 
friends, neighbors, community and wider society over time. The Ecological Systems 
Theory includes three significant assumptions: 1. A person is an active player, exerting 
influence on his/her environment, 2. Environment compels a person to adapt to 
conditions and restrictions, 3. Environment is understood to consist of different size 
entities that are placed one inside another of their reciprocal relationships. 
 
In addition, the ecological systems theory states that human development is a 
consequence of an individual‟s personal attributes and the environment or context in 
which an individual lives. The individual‟s interaction with the environment could either 
be positive or negative (Paquette & Ryan, 2009). Bronfenbrenner categorized the 
environment into five (5) and this includes; the micro, meso, exo, macro and the chrono 
systems. 
 
The microsystem is the closest environment for a child and includes structures with 
which the child maintains direct contact. It includes the child‟s family, classmates, 
teachers, neighbors and other people who have direct contact with the child. The theory 
states that we are not mere recipient of these experiences we have when socializing with 
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people in the micro system but we are contributing to the construction of such 
environment (Berk, 2000).  For example in the context of this study, when the parents 
are unable to perform their parental roles of providing the children with their basic needs 
such as food and shelter and also education, children may become compelled to move to 
the streets in order to survive. 
 
The Mesosystem comprises of the relationships between the microsystem (e.g. the 
relations between home and school, home and neighborhood etc.). That is the 
relationship between two microsystems and how it affects or influences the development 
and behavior of the child. This means that a child‟s family experience may be related to 
the child‟s school experience (Berk, 2000). For example, a child who has been neglected 
by his parents may develop a negative attitude towards his teachers or peers. 
 
The Exosystem is the linkage and processes taking place between two or more settings, 
at least one of which does not ordinarily contain developing person, but in which events 
occur that influence processes within the immediate settings that does contain that 
person (Example, the relation between the child‟s home and the parent‟s work place). 
This is significant because such events influence the environment where the child grows 
and develops. Especially, the parents‟ work (working hours, nature of work and work 
environment) as well as the day care and school arrangements create the conditions for 
the child‟s and the young person‟s activities within their micro-system (Berk, 2000). 
 
The Macrosystem is the culture of an individual or child. This involves the socio 
economic status of the child and/or his family, ethnicity or race and living in a 
developing country. consists of the overarching pattern  of micro-, meso-, and exo-
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systems characteristic of a given culture, subculture , or other broader social context, 
with particular reference to developmentally-instigative belief systems, resources, 
hazards, life styles, opportunity structures, life course options, and patterns of social 
interchange that are embedded in each of these systems (Berk, 2000). It includes norms, 
policies, laws, programmes and how they influence the development and behaviour of 
the child. In the context of this study, high unemployment rate in Ghana gives an 
additional challenge for persons with disability  to be able to obtain jobs hence many of 
them could move to the streets to beg in order to survive and as a result will bring their 
children along to the streets as well. 
 
The Chronosystem includes the transitions and shifts in a child‟s lifespan. It is a 
description of the evolution, development or stream of development of the external 
systems in time. The chronosystem model can cover either a short or long period of 
time. This system basically talks about the changes in the systems over time that affects 
or influence the development and behavior of the child (Berk, 2000). For instance, if a 
child losses his/her parents as a result of death and have no one providing for his basic 
needs then that child may be compelled to move to the streets in order to survive. 
 
The choice of the Ecological theory helped the researcher to understand how the 
different actors and factors in an environment influence children to become aides to 
adult beggars on the streets of Accra. It also assisted the researcher to identify and 
understand how the activity the children are involved with, affect them in their 
environment and how their engagement affects society at large. 
 
 
 
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Figure 1: Ecological Theory Diagram 
 
 
Diagram Adopted from: http://danalittle.blogspot.com/2011/04/bronfenbrenners-
ecological-theory.html 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2.5 Conclusion 
The literature review section of the study was done thematically based on the main 
objectives of the study. The researcher reviewed literature continentally and nationally 
on street children and child beggars. The review was more from the developing 
countries, especially from countries in Africa, including Ghana. This may be due to the 
fact that this is a social problem mostly prevalent in developing countries. Though, there 
seem to be limited literature on child aides to adult beggars, this literature was critically 
reviewed to understand the objectives of the study. Theoretically, ecological theory was 
used to explore the interactive dynamics and relationships between the person, context 
and the environment over time.  
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CHAPTER THREE 
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 
 
3.0 Introduction 
The previous chapter reviewed literature on street-connected youth that was relevant to 
the study. Chapter three focuses on the research methodology used for the study 
including a description of the sampling design, data collection and analysis procedures, 
and the ethical considerations. 
 
 
3.1. Research Design 
According to Kumar (2011), a research design entails the successive processes that are 
intended to address empirical data in connection to the research questions or concerns. 
Whilst the research could have been undertaken through the use of quantitative or mixed 
methods, a qualitative approach specifically a phenomenological research design was 
used. This approach was chosen because the study sought to gain in-depth information 
on the lived experiences of participants. The emphasis was on gaining a subjective 
understanding of the subject area from the children‟s perspective rather than a statistical 
description, especially, given the exploratory nature of the study (Creswell, 2013).  
 
 
3.2 The Study Area 
Greater Accra, specifically, the Accra Metropolitan Area was selected as the study 
setting.  As the capital city, it has a lot of industries as well as other administrative and 
economic activities. There is a heavy human and vehicular activity on the streets of 
Accra, making it an attractive place for many people, especially those living with 
disabilities, as a place to beg for alms. In addition, many children migrate from the north 
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to the area to live and work on the streets as head porters or Kayaye. In 2011, the 
Metropolitan Assembly had an estimated 50,997 street children (Department of Social 
Welfare et al., 2011). Therefore, the area was chosen as the study location as it had a 
number of the child aides. In addition, the researcher chose some areas in the 
Metropolitan Assembly that included Accra central business district, Dansoman, Kwame 
Nkrumah Circle, Kaneshie, Odorkor, 37, Dzorwulu, El- wak stadium and Cantonments 
because these areas have heavy vehicular activities and most of the participants were 
found there.  Lastly, limited time and logistics available and the researchers knowledge 
of the area made it an appropriate choice as a study location.  
 
3.3 Study Population  
The target population for the study included all street children in the Accra Metropolitan 
Area who aide adult beggars. Specifically, it included street children assisting adults 
with physical or visual challenges begging on the streets of Accra. 
  
3.4 Sampling Technique 
Two non-probability sampling techniques, purposive and snowballing or convenience 
were used in the study (Patton & Cochran, 2002). According to Bryman and Bell 
(2015), purposive sampling is a type of sampling based on the knowledge the researcher 
has about the population on the subject being studied. The purposive sampling criteria 
for the children were: (1) that they should be aged 12 to 17 years, and (2) assist an adult 
beggar with physical disability for at least three months.  
 
The age criteria chosen, that is below 18 years, was based on the definition of a child 
according to Ghana‟s 1998 Children‟s Act. Participants had to be above 11 years 
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because children in those age bracket were able to communicate their experiences better 
with the researcher. Snowballing was also used because of the difficulty the researcher 
had locating the study‟s respondents. During the fieldwork, the researcher realized that 
the adult beggars moved frequently, changing the locations where they begged on a 
daily basis. Thus, the children who agreed to be part of the study were asked to pass on 
details about the study to other children they knew who met the criteria for selection. 
Regarding the recruitment of the children, the researcher went to the selected study 
locations and approached the aides to the adult beggars. Those who met the inclusion 
criteria were informed about her study. A meeting was arranged with those who agreed 
to be part of the study. The researcher again arranged meetings with children‟s parents 
to seek their consent. For children whose parents or guardian were not available because 
of the distance, assent was used by the researcher as well as the researcher ascertained 
informed consent from the adult beggars the children assisted to involve the children in 
the study. 
Prior to start of the individual meeting, the researcher took time to explain to the 
participants the purpose of the study and gave them the chance to ask any questions, 
which could serve as hindrance to their participation, they were also assured of 
confidentiality of their participation in that their personal information were not going to 
be shared with anyone. From there participants were recruited and specific dates were 
arranged for the interviews. 
3.5 Sample Size 
The sample size was reached when the researcher reached data saturation because there 
was no new information coming up. According to Patton and Cochran (2002), sample 
size are typically small in qualitative work, how many people you need is to keep 
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interviewing until you reach saturation when nothing new comes up. Creswell (2013) 
always said that a sample size from 5 to 25 is ideal in qualitative study hence my choice 
in selecting a sample size of 15 participants.  
 
3.6 Sources of Data and Data Collection 
Primary data were collected between August and October 2014. The researcher 
collected qualitative data through interviews with children who aide adult beggars. Semi 
structured interviews were held with sampled children. The researcher chose semi 
structured interview because it allowed her to probe into responses for further 
explanations from the respondents (Patton & Cochran, 2002). Guiding questions which 
aided the researcher in the interviews included a mixture of close and open ended 
questions constructed the basis of the objectives of the study. Fifteen (15) participants 
were involved in the interviews. An interview questions was designed in the English 
language. However, some of the interviews were conducted in the local dialect of Ga, 
Ewe and Twi depending on the dialect the interviewee preferred. The research built a 
good rapport with each of the participants in order to increase trust and enhance the free 
flow of information. In addition, the researcher listened attentively, and tape recorded 
using a digital audio recorder with participants‟ permission. The interviews were 
individually conducted with the respondents and also conducted at a place convenient to 
the respondents. Most of the interviews took place at Coco Marketing Board car park or 
under a tree close to the streets. Interviews were mostly conducted very early in the 
mornings and also in the evenings. Each interview lasted approximately 35 minutes. 
 
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3.7 Data Handling and Analysis 
The researcher recorded all interviews conducted with the street children as aide to adult 
beggars. The recorded information was stored in different media for safe keeping and 
analysis. The researcher transcribed interviews with the various participants with the 
aide of Microsoft word. The Analytical Framework developed by the UK National 
Centre for Social Research (Richie & Lewis, 2003) was used as a guide in the 
management and analysis of data.  
The first step in management and analysis of the data by the framework was that the 
researcher was familiar with the content of the data collected by evaluating and re-
evaluating the transcribed data. The researcher viewed this process as important because 
it is similar to building the foundation structure of the findings. This process is 
supported by Ritchie et al. (2003) familiarization process. The researcher also took note 
of recurring themes at this initial stage.  
The second stage of the framework is the development of a conceptual framework. The 
third stage of the framework is the application of the initial themes identified in the 
familiarization stage. At this stage, meanings and labels were given to each of the 
already identified themes as against indexing of the data as analytical framework 
showed.  Next the data were sorted according to the themes which were created. At this 
stage, themes that were similar were brought together. The reason was to allow the 
researcher to focus on each subject in turn so that the detail and distinctions that lie 
within can be unpacked. The final stage the analysis was the summary of data. This 
helps reduce the amount of materials to a more manageable level. All quotations are 
presented verbatim in order to present a true reflection of the voices of the participants. 
  
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3.8 Ethical Consideration 
All research studies consider ethical issues and measures in place to address them. Prior 
to commencing any aspect of the proposed research, it is important that the approval of 
the relevant ethics committee must be granted. Ethics can be defines as a code of 
behaviour considered correct (Rees, 2003). According to Rees (2003) ethical 
considerations that involve human subjects in social science research can be categorized 
into two ethical issues. 
   
 
First, the researcher followed child research methodology and ethics in accordance with 
procedures outlined in Cochrane (1977) and related publications (Creswell, 2013; 
Kumar, 2011; Yin, 2011). The research participants included children who are legally 
minors and cannot give their consent therefore, the researcher sought the informed 
consent from parents of the research participants. This was done through the use of a 
written consent form. Parents of the research participants who could read appended their 
signatures of consent on the informed consent form after the purpose of the study had 
been read and understood by them. In the case of those who could not read, the 
researcher orally explained the purpose of the study to them in their local dialect (Ga, 
Ewe and Twi) and only conducted interviews with the children after their parents had 
given oral consent of participation. In certain circumstances participants whose parents 
could not be located assent was used by researcher as well as informed consent was 
ascertained from the adult beggars that the children assisted. 
 
All research participants who gave their assent and consent from their parents to 
participate in the study were guaranteed that their participation in this research was 
voluntary and they could opt out at any point they so wished. Furthermore, the 
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researcher also ensured that the identities of the research participants were not exposed 
or could be traced by any third party. This enabled the research participants to give 
information without fear. This was done by ensuring confidentiality, privacy and 
anonymity of research participants by the use of pseudo-names and organizing the 
interviews and discussions with participants at their preferred places where people did 
not interrupt. The researcher also avoided any descriptive information that could lead to 
the identification of participants. Participants were duly informed and their permission 
sought before their voices were recorded on the audio recorder during interviews. 
Lastly, all sources of information that were retrieved were duly acknowledged. For the 
purpose of this work, approval was sort from relevant authorities such as the Department 
of Social Work, University of Ghana, Legon. 
 
3.9 Credibility and Trustworthiness of Qualitative Research Design 
 The credibility and trustworthiness of the qualitative research data was ensured by 
adhering to the following: the researcher employed qualitative research methods such as 
in-depth interview with street children in collecting the data. These methods ensured 
triangulation of findings from the different methods. This is supported by Kumar (2011) 
who proposed that triangulation is significant to qualitative studies if its credibility is to 
be established. The researcher therefore compared the data from the three methods and 
drew conclusions from them. For example, the researcher interviewed a child and 
wanted to know if the boy was in school. During the interview, the boy told the 
researcher that he was in school. However, the researcher verified from the adult beggar 
and was told that the boy was not going to school. The researcher further asked for the 
name of the school the boy attended and he pointed to a school not far from where the 
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interview took place. The researcher went to the school to verify and upon reaching the 
school, the researcher found that the boy was not a student of the school.  
 
Furthermore, the researcher did frequent debriefing sessions with her supervisors. The 
researcher was always in communication with her supervisors who gave her different 
ideas to improve her work. For example, the researcher had to do a pilot study and when 
the data was conducted, her supervisors improved upon the questions in order for the 
researcher to gather the needed information. 
 
Lastly, Peer scrutiny of the research project was also one of the methods used to ensure 
trustworthiness. After the researcher did her proposal for the study she had to do a 
presentation in front of her colleagues and supervisors who scrutinized the proposal and 
also gave her ideas that helped shape her work. 
3.10 Limitations of the Study 
During the process of transcribing the audio recorded interviews, the researcher faced 
the challenge of adequately translating the local Ghanaian language which was used by 
participants in the interviews into English. It was difficult, and in some cases impossible, 
to translate the content of items in the local language into a second language without 
losing the exact meaning as the local language cannot be concisely expressed in English. 
In order to validate such limitations, the researcher consulted with her peers and 
academic supervisors to reconcile the gaps in transcribing the local language into 
English.  
 
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3.11 Conclusion  
The study utilized qualitative research methodology specifically phenomenological 
research design to gain understanding of the subject matter from the research 
participants instead of undertaking a quantitative method. The study was done in Accra 
Metropolitan Area of Ghana, which is the national capital city of Ghana. The rationale 
for the selection of this study site was based on the heavy human and vehicular activities 
on the streets and the city also served as a pull factor for rural-urban migration of all 
kinds of people including children, and physically disabled persons with the intention of 
begging on the streets for their survival due to poverty. The researcher employed in-
depth interview with a semi-structured interview guide as the method of collecting 
primary data.  
Fifteen participants, all street children assisting adult beggars, aged 12 to 17 years were 
purposively recruited through snowball technique and interviewed for the study. 
Participation was voluntary and consent was sought from participants and their parents. 
The researcher analyzed data inductively and thematically utilizing the Analytical 
Framework developed by UK National Center for social Research (Richie et al., 2003)   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER FOUR 
PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS  
4.0 Introduction 
This chapter four presents findings of the study. The chapter begins by providing 
information on the demographic characteristics of participants who took part in the 
study. It continues with a presentation of findings on the factors that influence children 
as aides to adult beggars. There is a presentation of findings on the activities children 
perform as aides to adult beggars and the challenges that confront them as aides to adult 
beggars.  
 
4.1. Demographic Characteristics of Participants 
This section provides the demographic characteristics of the participants who took part 
in the study. In all, fifteen (15) participants were interviewed. The participants were 
street children who were either paid or unpaid assistants to adult beggars.   
 
The ages of the street children ranged from twelve (12) to seventeen (17) years at the 
time they were interviewed. All fifteen (15) children had been aides to adult beggars for 
at least three months. In addition, six (6) children were related to the adult beggars, nine 
(9) of the street children were unrelated to the adult beggars they assisted. Thirteen (13) 
of them were not in school and only two (2) of the children reported they were still in 
school. All the participants lived on the streets, except one who came from Winneba to 
Kaneshie with an adult beggar every weekend to beg.    
 
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4.2 Factors that Influenced Children as Aides to Adult Beggars 
From the shared experiences of participant, poverty was identified as the factor 
influencing children to aide adult beggars. Although none of the participants mentioned 
specifically that they were on the street because of poverty, the researcher found that it 
was because of poverty that children who had parents with disability came to the streets 
to be able to survive with their families. In addition, it is also because of poverty that 
abandoned children came to the streets to make a livelihood. Furthermore, Poverty was 
the driving force for children to accept the offer of becoming aides to adult beggars 
through referral to be able to provide for their basic needs.  
 
However, most of the street children stated other factors influencing them to become 
aides to adult beggars. These factors include Parental disability, Abandonment and 
Business purpose. 
 
4.2.1. Parental Disability and Abandonment  
Breakdown in the family unit as a result of spousal disability is one of the factors 
influencing children as aides to adult beggars. The neglect by irresponsible fathers and 
mothers push children to the streets.  The study found that for children related to the 
adult beggars, abandonment happened as a result of a spouse neglecting their 
responsibilities because their partner developed a disability which they felt burdened 
with and were not ready to handle the additional care that persons with disability 
required. This however placed pressure on the other remaining partner who was no 
longer in the position to work and care for the needs of the families. In the quest to 
provide for the family‟s needs, parents had no option but opt for the streets to beg 
thereby taking their children with them for assistance. According to the participants, 
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when their parents go out to beg, they required assistance and because they did not find 
anybody to assist, they had no choice than to assist them: 
“My mother abandoned us after my father became blind and lost his job. 
My father found it difficult taking care of us so he decided to come to 
Accra to look for work. He later started begging when he couldn’t find 
work to do and asked me to assist him because it was difficult finding 
someone” (Adjoa, 12 years). 
 
In addition, children who were unrelated to the adult beggars were assisting the adult 
beggars because they were abandoned by their irresponsible fathers and felt a sense of 
responsibility to support the income of their family. The pressure on a single parent, 
usually females, made it difficult to provide for the needs of their children and this 
however pushed children to the streets in order to be able to lend support for the upkeep 
of their families. 
“My dad stole my mother’s money and run away to Abidjan. From that 
day it became more difficult for my mother to take care of my four 
siblings and myself. Most often we could go days without food so I 
decided to come to Accra to find work to do so I can support my mother 
and I found this job (that is being an aide to adult beggars)”(kweku, 
15years). 
 
Although children who were related to the adult beggars also aided other beggars on the 
streets, the study found that the main reason that influenced children related to the adult 
beggars to become aides was as a result of their parents‟ disability. Children had to 
assist their parents on the streets because their parents required assistance due to the 
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risky and busy nature of the streets which made it difficult for the parents to beg 
effectively on their own. Also the parents had difficulty in getting assistance from other 
people. In addition, children felt sorry for their parents disability and also for their 
parents not being in the position to have any source of livelihood due to lack of job 
opportunities for persons with disability. According to participants assisting their 
parents on the streets ensured their livelihood: 
“My dad became blind a year ago and lost his job. It became difficult for 
him to provide for myself and three of my siblings so he decided to beg in 
order for him to make some money for us to get food and clothes to wear. 
I felt sorry to see my dad in his present condition because he can’t do 
anything to help himself that is why I assist him” (Ama, 14years). 
 
“The main reason why I became an aide was to assist my mother because 
she found it difficult getting someone to assist her when she went 
begging. On days that she is unable to go begging, I go with other adult 
beggars so that I can make some money to assist her” (Akua, 13 years). 
 
4.2.2 Business Purposes 
For children related to adult beggars, being an aide to the adult beggars were because of 
the disability of their parents, whiles the children who were unrelated were engaged in 
this activity solely for business purpose. Having assessed the financial situations of the 
families and also the inability of the parents to live up to their financial obligation, many 
of the children who were unrelated to the adult beggars voluntarily opted to become 
aides to adult beggars in order to be able to provide their own basic needs as well as 
supplement their families income. In addition, some of the children who were not related 
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to the adult beggars were assisting the adults based on the negotiations their parents had 
with the adult beggars. Participants had these to say: 
“I am assisting the old man because I am able to make money which 
helps me in providing for my basic needs as well as assisting my family. I 
earn between GHC20 to GHC50 a day when I assist him” (kobby, 14 
years). 
 
“My mother asked him (adult beggar) to take me along when he goes to 
beg so that I can make some money for her (mother) to send me to school 
and to take care of our needs” (Danso, 12 years). 
 
More so, children unrelated to the adult beggars were recommended by other people 
(friends or friends of their parents) to assist the adult beggars. One of the children 
unrelated to the adult beggars was aiding the adults because some people had told his 
family about assisting adult beggars being a lucrative the business so had therefore 
migrated from the rural community to Accra purposely to aid the adult beggar. For 
instance, Kwame who was living on the streets with his mother was aiding an older man 
because someone told his mother assisting adult beggars was a lucrative business: 
“We were in Suhum and a family member called Kojo said there was a 
blind man who will pay me if I beg with him. He also told my mother that 
begging in Accra is a good work and we can make more money from it, 
so my mother brought me to him” (Kwame, 14 years). 
 
Some of the children unrelated to the adult beggars were already on the streets engaging 
in other activities like washing windscreen of cars and carrying load for people but they 
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made pittance from those activities. Their friends who were assisting adult beggars 
enticed them with gifts and money they got from aiding adult beggars and advised them 
to go into assisting adult beggars because it can fetched them more money than the 
activity they were engaged in so they followed their friends and started assisting adult 
beggars. Kwesi mentioned that he ended up on the street because he wanted to work to 
earn some money so he started by cleaning the windscreen of cars which did not earn 
him enough money. His friend who was an aide to an adult beggar then introduced him 
to the business and he started engaging in it: 
I was cleaning the windscreen of cars but I was not earning enough 
money so some of my friend told me that they take blind adults for 
begging and they are able to make enough money so they introduced me 
and I went to CMB (Cocoa Marketing Board) to take one of them for the 
first time and I have been doing this work since then. This work is more 
lucrative compared to cleaning of car windscreen in traffic’ (Kwesi, 15 
years). 
 
4.3 Activities Children Perform as Aides Adult Beggars 
Children who are aide to adult beggars perform several activities for the adult as well as 
taking care of their own needs. Children who are related to adult beggars turn to perform 
more task than children who are unrelated to the adult beggars. This section looks at the 
various activities that children as aides to adult beggars perform. These include care 
given roles and assisting on the streets. 
 
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4.3.1 Care Giving Roles 
Care-giving roles were one of the activities performed by children as aides to adult 
beggars. Their roles included buying of food, cooking, sweeping, fetching of water, 
running errands and washing. Although most of the children performed care-giving 
roles, the kind of care they gave to the adult beggars differed based on the relationship 
they had with the adult beggar. The children who were related to the adult beggars did 
more intense activities than the unrelated ones.   
 
Children who were related to the adult beggars perform multiple activities like cooking 
for the adult beggars, assisting them to the public wash rooms for them to have their 
bath, cooking for them, washing their clothes and that of their siblings plus babysitting 
their younger siblings. In a situation that the adult beggar is unwell the child had the 
responsibility of assisting them to a health care facility as well as taking care of other 
things they required.  For instance, Mommy a 13 year old who aids her mother said that 
she gets up very early in the morning to fetch water for her mother and younger siblings 
to take their baths before setting off to beg. She does the same activity when they return 
in the night in addition to cooking and babysitting her younger siblings. Another 
participant also shared a similar experience: 
“What I normally do is that I wake up at 4am and leave CMB for the public wash 
rooms with my father and siblings. Then I fetch water for him to bath; after 
which I bath my younger sisters. I also pick their cloths for them to change and 
we set off to our location. When we close I also do the same thing. I cook, wash 
and babysit my sister who is 9 months old” (Serwaa, 15 years). 
 
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Whilst the related children performed much intensive care giving roles, for the children 
who were not related to the adult beggars, they did less activity with regards to the care 
they gave to the adult beggars. Participants who were unrelated to the adult beggars 
explained that the activities they performed entailed buying of food, running of errands 
and assisting the adult beggar to the public washrooms. They also added that when they 
return from begging, they assisted the adult beggar by fetching water for them to take a 
bath and then assisting them to their place of rest after which their work is done for the 
day. A participant unrelated to an adult beggar had this to say: 
I buy food for him when he is hungry and he also sends me for anything 
he needs. After close of work I take him to the public washrooms for him 
to take his bath. I fetch water for him to bath and I take him to his resting 
place [under a tree close to the Accra central police station] then I 
leave” (Ibrahim, 14 years). 
 
4.3.2 Assisting on the Streets 
 Assisting the adults on the streets to beg is also one of the activities performed by the 
children who are aides to adult beggars. According to the participants they mostly assist 
the adult beggars on the street by moving from one vehicle to another asking people for 
money. Participants also stressed that it is important for them to set off very early in the 
morning because it is a strategic time to meet people who are rushing to work and this 
can help them to make more money for the day. Most of the begging also took place 
around traffic lights because that is the time children and the adult beggars had the 
opportunity to beg from people by singing and offering prayers: 
 
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“I get up very early and we set off by 4:00 am because we need to get to 
our location by 5:00a.m so that we can meet the cars to beg from. We 
move to the cars when the traffic starts and I take him from one car to 
another. As soon as the traffic moves we stop and when the traffic stops 
we start again” (Frank, 13 years). 
 
“We go to places where there are huge traffic so that the adults can have 
the opportunity to beg from a lot of cars in order for us to make enough 
for the day. I assist him by taking him from one vehicle to another; we 
sing and also pray for the people. Those who have pity on us give us 
money but some people just turn their face away” (Baba, 17 years). 
 
Children spend approximately twelve (12) hours to thirteen (13) hours each day 
assisting the adult beggar on the streets. Each day except Sundays were working days 
for the children and the adult beggars. Their working time is usually from 5a.m to 5pm 
and on certain days they work from 5am to 6pm. They have one (1) hour or two (2) 
hours to have a break time and after eating they resume work. Participants also 
explained that they change the locations they work at. They do not remain at just one 
location but rather they go to different locations within a week. 
“We start work as early as 5am at places where there are traffic lights 
and close around 5pm or 6pm depending on how much we had made in 
that day. Also we don’t beg at one particular place all the time, if the 
money we made at a specific location is small, we don’t go back there the 
next day but rather go elsewhere to see if we can make more money 
there’’(kwesi, 15years). 
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4.4. Challenges that are confronted by Children as Aides to Adult Beggars 
Children are confronted with numerous challenges as aides to adult beggars. The 
challenges included health which is at a result of the activities they performed and also 
living on the streets, educational challenge which involved abandoning school for 
begging, emotional challenge which involved denied leisure and abuse. The challenges 
that confronted the children as aides to adult beggars have been discussed in subsequent 
paragraphs 
 
4.4.1 Emotional Challenge 
Play time is one of the important aspects of a child‟s development process because it 
builds the child‟s cognitive development (Ginsburg, 2007). It also helps the child 
develop some networks that could be necessary later in the future when they become 
adults. For children related to adult beggars their play time was interrupted because of 
the multiple activities they performed. According to participants denied leisure time was 
one of the challenges that they confronted because they were unable to make time to 
play or mingle with other children. Participants further explained that they spend 
majority of their time caring for their parents as well as their younger siblings that they 
did not find time for themselves which also included their play time: 
“My mother’s condition (blind) makes it difficult for me to go anywhere 
because she is unable to do certain things by herself. I have to constantly 
stay beside her so that I can assist her with anything she may require. In 
addition I have to baby sit my other siblings, all the things I do makes it 
difficult for me to go anywhere or even have time to play with my 
friends” (Akua, 13 years). 
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Children showed dissatisfaction in the activities they performed. They described 
begging as a demeaning and stigmatized activity.  The participants also added that it 
affected their level of confidence and dignity because they faced verbal abuse from 
passengers and sometimes from the adult beggars. The researcher found that all of the 
participants faced verbal abuse.   
“Sometimes passengers insult you and the adult beggars also insult you. 
It mostly makes me very sad because sometimes you don’t do anything 
wrong but they still insult you. When it happens like that I cry” (Edem, 14 
years). 
 
For children who were related to the adult beggars, they received protection from their 
parents which reduced their risk of being raped and robbed, the children who were not 
related to the adult beggars faced a higher risk of being robbed and raped because of the 
lack of supervision and protection from a responsible adult: 
“The place we sleep is not good. There are lazy people who will not work 
so when you work they come and steal the money from you and rape you 
as well” (Pokua, 15 years). 
 
4.4.2 Physical Challenge (Stress) 
The frequent walking and standing often made the children burn out. The long hours of 
work coupled with the other activities they performed after work made the children 
physically tired. Children as aide to adult beggars worked hours that are approximate to 
the hours of work for regular workers. Although all the participants shared that they got 
tired from the activities they performed, the stress is much greater for the children 
related to the adult beggars. For related children, they had to perform additional 
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activities after work. This got them very tired because they were unable to have a rest 
time. Participants added that the time they slept and also woke up from bed got them 
tired because they were unable to have enough rest: 
“I get very tired because I wake up very early to take my father to beg as 
soon as we get back I have to cook, wash and take care of my younger 
siblings and I have to be around constantly so that when my dad needs 
anything I can attend to him. I also sleep very late so at night I feel pains 
all over my body” (Serwaa, 15 years). 
 
A child who was unrelated to the Adult Beggar had this to say: 
“Walking from cars to cars gets me very tired. I am always standing and 
walking in the hot sun because there is no place to sit and also when we 
close we have to fetch water or buy things for them. It is very tiring and 
difficult” (Danso, 12 years). 
 
4.4.3 Physical Challenge (Safety Concerns) 
 Children also faced the challenge of being knocked down by vehicles. Spending time on 
the streets is a safety concern because there are high risks of being knocked down by 
vehicles. The responses from the participants showed that children faced high risk of 
being knocked down by vehicles because most often they were unable to judge correctly 
with regard to road safety issues. Children need adult supervision on the road, but in 
these instances the children were rather giving assistance to adult on the road. All 
participants admitted that aiding adult beggars increased their risk of being knocked 
down or killed by vehicles. Participants explained that some drivers did not follow the 
road and the traffic lights regulations, when traffic lights had signaled red for cars to 
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stop some reckless drivers still drove on and this has been a cause of most of the road 
accidents children and their aides were involved with. In addition, the drivers did not 
assist the victims after they had been knocked down rather they sped off. Children and 
adult beggars relied on other sympathies: 
“Cars drive so fast that if you are not careful you can easily be knocked 
down. I remember once that a blind man and his aide were knocked down 
by a car. The driver drove off, he didn’t even stop to assist. Rather it was 
other people that helped them’’ (Frank, 13 years). 
 
“We are mostly knocked down by cars. I have had accidents twice and 
the drivers did not even stop to assist me to the hospital, he just run 
away. All these cuts on my hand and face are from car accidents’’ 
(Kwesi, 15years). 
 
The participants further indicated that sometimes they were unable to judge correctly 
when vehicles are approaching because they were unable to tell which direction to go 
hence the danger of them (children and their aide) being knocked down by vehicles: 
“When cars are approaching it is difficult for me to tell which direction 
we should pass so sometimes face the danger of being knocked down by a 
car. Some have been knocked down by cars during begging” (Ibrahim, 14 
years). 
 
4.4.4 Health Challenges 
Constant exposure to the sun is a contributing factor for street children falling ill. 
According to the participants, they often fell ill due to the long hours of work spent 
under the sun. Additionally, participants indicated that the constant exposure to different 
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people increased their risk of contracting skin diseases. They also added that the place 
they slept increased their risk of contracting communicable disease like cholera.  
“I am mostly sick due to the harsh weather. For instance when the sun is 
very hot we still stand to beg and when it is raining we get beaten by the 
rain because there is no place to stand for refuge. I normally get skin 
rash due to contact with other people” (kobby, 14 years). 
 
“The place we sleep has a lot of mosquitoes which makes us sick. We are 
always sick. We get malaria at least once a month” (Akua, 13 years). 
 
Although many of the children had some similar challenges with regards to health, there 
were however differences in the kind of challenges they experienced based on the 
relationship they had with the adult beggar. Participants who were unrelated to the adult 
beggars complained of not being able to cook their own food as a result of not having 
the facilities and skills to cook. Therefore, they had to resort to constant buying of food 
from food vendors which increased their risk of contracting cholera whenever there was 
an outbreak: 
“My friends and I always buy food to eat because we cannot cook and 
again, we don’t have cooking utensils and coal pot so we sometimes get 
sick especially when there is cholera outbreak we normally contract it. I 
had cholera last year and I nearly died” (Baba, 17 years). 
 
Access to health care facilities is a challenge for children unrelated to the adult beggars. 
According to participants, they did not have the resources to access health care so they 
normally buy medicine from the chemical shops or use herbal drugs that were usually 
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sold on vans. Participants indicated that going to the hospital by themselves was 
uncomfortable because the nurses were unfriendly towards them. Additionally, 
participants explained that when they fell ill especially at night, they faced difficulty in 
getting assistance to health care centers and also receiving care during the period they 
have been ill because they do not live with their parents: 
“ I don’t like going to the hospital because I don’t have the money to pay 
for my bills, besides when you go there the nurses shout at you and treat 
you like you are a bad person” (Danso, 12 years). 
 
“Getting people to assist you to the hospital at night when you are sick is 
very difficult because they are afraid to spend their money on you. 
Because my family is far away, it is difficult to get someone to take care 
of you when you are not well” (Edem, 14 years). 
 
Participants added that because health care was expensive, anytime they were ill their 
parents went to the pharmacies to seek help and also buy some medication for them to 
use: 
“Initially when we go to the hospital when I am ill, we do not spend 
because the NHIS was working and we only needed to use our cards but 
these days the hospitals do not accept the cards so my father has to pay 
the bills and because he also does have a lot of money, these days when 
we are ill he goes to the pharmacy to buy some medicine for us to take’’ 
(mommy, 13 years). 
 
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4.4.5. Educational Challenge 
Education forms an important part of every child‟s development stage because it helps 
build their potential and also gives them some form of security. Children are able to 
build their careers through education but for children as aides to adult beggars the 
prevalence of education was generally low.  Two out of the fifteen children were 
combining begging with schooling. Also their level of attendance to school was even 
characterized by unpunctuality: 
“I am unable to go to school regularly like my friends back home. It 
makes studying difficult because I always have to work harder to catch 
up with my friends at school” (Serwaa, 15 years). 
 
Some of the participants related to the adult beggars added that they were aides to adult 
beggars because of the promise of sending them to school. The dream of sending them 
to school may have been a ploy to get the children to assist the adult beggars because 
their dream was yet to be fulfilled by their parents: 
“My mother said I should assist her to beg so that she can save some 
money to send me to school. I have been assisting her for one and half 
years now but we haven’t yet made enough for her to take me” (Edem, 14 
years). 
 
Most of the participants related to the adult beggars wished they did not have to aid their 
parents to beggar. However, the obligation of a child to their parents tied them to engage 
in the activity at the expense of their education: 
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“I wish I could go to school but if I do my mother would not have 
anybody to assist her and besides we do not have the money” (Akua, 13 
years). 
 
For participants who were unrelated to the adult beggars, some of them complained of 
low performance in school as a result they dropped out and decided to move to the 
streets to engage in economic activities hence their involvement in assisting adult 
beggars. Others also complained of their parents being unable to pay their fees so they 
dropped out. 
“There was no money at home to support me in school. I went to school 
hungry and this affected my performance because I couldn’t considerate 
so I decided to abandon school to look for work and support myself as 
well as my mother’’(Baba, 17 years). 
 
“There was no money to pay for my fees so every time I was being sucked 
from school, it was too embarrassing for me and my family was also 
struggling in taking care of our needs (together with his siblings) so I 
opted to look for work on the streets and I found this woman who needed 
assistance so I started bringing her here to beg’’ (Ibrahim, 14 years). 
 
4.5 Conclusion 
The main objective of the study was to explore the factors that influenced children to 
become street aides to adult beggars, activities children performed as aides to adult 
beggars and the challenges they faced as aides to adult beggars in the streets of Accra 
Metropolitan area. The chapter presented demographic information of the 15 
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participants in terms of age, educational and length of time on the streets as aides to 
adult beggars. The demographical information indicated that all the fifteen children had 
been aides to adult beggars for at least three months, six of the children were related to 
the adult beggars and nine were unrelated. Thirteen of these street children were not in 
school, except for two, who self-reported to be in school and all the children lived on the 
streets, except for one who travelled from another region to Accra with the adult beggar.  
 
The main factors that influenced children to serve as aides to adult beggars were 
poverty, parental disabilities and abandonment, and business purpose. The activities the 
children performed included care-giving roles and denial of leisure.  This framework 
highlights the problems and deficits these children faced as individuals, family 
members, members of groups and members of their larger societies and cultures and the 
negative interplay and implications on their social, physiological, educational and 
psychological developments as future leaders of this country. 
 
 
 
  
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CHAPTER FIVE 
DISCUSSIONS, SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS  
5.0. Introduction 
This chapter covers a discussion of issues emerging from the findings that have been 
presented. A conclusion has also been drawn on the findings. Through careful study of 
findings, the researcher has made some recommendations that if adhered to, will help 
policy makers and social workers reduce the problem of street children assisting adult 
beggars on the street. 
 
5.1 Discussions of Findings 
In the area of economic, findings from the study shows that parents‟ inability to provide 
the basic needs of their children compelled many children to become aides to adult 
beggars in order to supplement the income of the family. Children usually opt for the 
streets having assessed their family‟s financial situations and the inability of the parents 
to live up to their financial obligations. Also, the findings revealed that rural poverty 
plays a significant role in forcing many people including children, to migrate to urban 
centers with a hope of a better future. This findings, is consistent with a study done in 
Zimbabwe by Muchinako et al. (2013) on street children. They found that children had 
no option than to accompany their parents/ caregivers unto the streets because they were 
poor and lived at informal and unregulated settlements. A similar finding by Abebe 
(2009) in Ethiopia on street begging indicated that the main justification for many boys 
and girls to be involved in begging is poverty. Abebe (2009) further explained that 
begging ensures that street children meet their basic needs and enhanced their capacity 
to be significant contributors to family income. Thus, by begging and supporting their 
households, child beggars fulfil a socially meaningful and valuable role in everyday life. 
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The findings further showed that the breakdown of the family influenced children to 
become aides to adult beggars. Families were able to make a livelihood until one partner 
abandoned his/her responsibilities. Parents who were staying together had enough 
resource to support the needs of their children because they were able to gather their 
resources together to manage the home but in circumstances where one partner 
abandoned the family, the finance of the family suffered. Again, a single parent‟s having 
insufficient resources to provide the household needs like food, clothing, shelter and 
health, used their children to supplement the income of the family. Children also feeling 
a sense of responsibility to lend their support for the upkeep of the family resulted to the 
streets hence giving assistance to adult beggars.  
 
Furthermore, the abandonment of persons with disability by families is a very common 
feature in most African countries and usually handicap persons have to depend on other 
people for their daily bread. The findings of the study showed that children becoming 
aides to adult beggars were as a result of parental disability and abandonment. Parents 
with disability abandoned by their partner‟s because of their disability, had no choice 
than to beg from other people to be able to support the basic needs of their families. 
Again, parents unable to effectively beg on their own due to the risky and busy nature of 
the streets required assistance and because most of them did not find other people to 
assist them they resorted to using their own children. Additionally, children assistance to 
their parents on the streets was because of the moral obligation children had towards 
their parents in society. This however made children committed and obligated to support 
their parents with disability to be able to search for the family‟s livelihood. This finding 
is consistent with Abebe (2008) who found in his study that most child beggars had been 
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born by parents with visibility problems and as a result went on begging with their 
parents during their early childhood.  
  
Furthermore, lack of job opportunities and statutory support for vulnerable families 
makes it difficult for them to make a livelihood. Again, the parents of the participants 
were not receiving any grants or fund (from the disability fund available at the District 
assemblies) that they are eligible to receive. This however exerted much pressure on the 
parents and begging became the only means of livelihood. However, this made many of 
them resort to begging as the only means of survival and taking their children with them 
as well. This supports findings by Namwata et al. (2012) that person‟s with disability 
face many challenges and barriers as well as competitions for jobs which makes it 
difficult to work or even start any economic activity. 
 
The findings also revealed that children were assisting adult on the streets for business 
purposes. Children unrelated to the adult beggars received one third of the total money 
the adults made in a day which ranged from GHC 50 or more on a good day and GHC 
20 to GHC 25 on a bad day. On average, this is above the minimum wage of a Ghanaian 
who works in the formal sector (Ministry for Employment and Labour Relations, 2015). 
Further, the children were also able to build survival strategies on the streets like being a 
member of gang that became an agency for them to get what they wanted. They used the 
agency to either negotiate or demand how much they wanted to be paid as assistance to 
adult beggars.  
 
The findings are compatible with the ecological system theory used to underpin this 
study. It highlights the problems in a child‟s micro, messo, exo, macro and 
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chronosystems which have negative implications on the child‟s developmental stage. 
Most of the children‟s involvements in assisting adult beggars were influenced by the 
socio-economic factors that they faced in their micro system.  
 
From the Ecological systems theory, the far reaching change in the structure of the 
family including the disability of a parent and the abandonment of one party could affect 
the development of the child. The child‟s immediate family which is the micro system 
plays a major role in the development of the child. In this instance, children of parents 
with disability living and working on the streets to making a livelihood had a higher 
chance to become an aide to adult beggars because that was what they were nurtured to 
know.  
 
The parental disability and abandonment could also suggest the weakening of the 
extended family system that previously provided a safety net for vulnerable families. 
Extended families are no longer taking care of people with disability as well as their 
children. Children could no longer just be children, but were forced to take up adult 
roles to support their own needs as well as the needs of their parents.  This supports 
findings by DSW et al. (2011) that the Ghanaian societies depended largely on the 
extended families for survival but modernization has greatly affected the role and 
function of the traditional family system which in the past supported children when their 
parents died.  They concluded that this system of support is eroding off as economic 
pressures on families prevent them from helping others as these days when people have 
problem, they depend on their own resources for solution.  
 
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The meso-system which consists of interactions between different parts of a person 
micro system, explains that the microsystems do not function independently but are inter 
connected and have great influence on each other and this forms a key aspect in the 
development of a child by affecting the child positively or negatively. From the findings, 
a child‟s development were influenced negatively because parents were convinced by 
their friends of the fact that children assisting adult beggars on the streets was a lucrative 
business, as a result parents forced their children to engage in the activity for their own 
benefit. Again, the ecological theory explains the different environment that the child 
interacts with, impacting the child‟s development stage. The study findings revealed that 
children were referred by their friends to engage in assisting adult beggars because it 
was a lucrative work to do.  This supports the study by Namwata et al. (2012) in which 
they identified peer pressure and being convinced by friends as one of the factors that 
influenced begging.  
 
Additionally, children who combined the begging with school were affected negatively 
as they were not punctual at school and performed poorly in class. This however may 
develop negative characteristics in the child that may include not socializing with their 
friends and keeping to themselves often, they may also begin to dislike school and 
eventually drop out. According to Becker (2007) children who spend more time doing a 
wide range of household and caring tasks, shopping, doing laundry, making dinner, and 
looking after siblings, are more likely to have anxiety or depressed behaviors and 
behave antisocially, particularly at school. 
 
More so, the exo-system which refers to a link in a setting where the child does not play 
an active role and the child‟s immediate context. The challenge for persons with 
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disability to get jobs and also lack of support services available for persons with 
disability as well as their children makes many disabled persons resort to begging as the 
only alternative to make a livelihood for the larger families. This however impacts on 
the child development as children and their families face economic difficulties because 
their parents were not engaged in any economic activity that could generate income for 
their survival. 
 
In the macro system which includes the economy, cultural values and political systems 
can have a positive or negative impact on the development of the child. The poor 
economic rate in Ghana coupled with high unemployment rates leaves many families in 
Ghana very poor. It is very difficult getting jobs for abled persons so for persons with 
disability there is a higher challenge for them to get work or be employed.  Additionally, 
the social services in Ghana in charge of handling issues related to vulnerable persons is 
not well resourced therefore the challenge for families who require support to make a 
livelihood. According to the Disability Act (Act 715) section 9, the government is 
supposed to assist persons with disability secure a job but this aspect of the act is not 
being implemented as many disabled persons remain unemployed. There are other 
initiatives taken by government to cater for vulnerable groups which include the 
Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) and the disability fund under the 
District Assembly Common fund but many of the families were not covered under these 
programmes. This finding however supports Ali and colleagues (2004) study that poor 
economic strength of a country coupled with lower income, large family sizes and high 
cost of living made it difficult for families to provide for their children hence making 
street life crucial.  
 
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Findings revealed that children give regular and significant care-giving and assistance to 
adult beggars. Children did domestic chores and also run errands for the adult beggars. 
They gave up their childhood and all the pleasures that came with just being a child to 
assume adult roles and responsibilities. In the Western construction of childhood, 
children are not expected to take up substantial or regular caregiving roles or 
responsibility (Becker, 2007) but this is not the case in Ghana. In Ghana, it is the moral 
responsibility of children to offer assistances to their parents in terms of assisting with 
domestic chores and also playing a part in the work that a child‟s parents perform 
(Oduro, 2013). For instance, in the case of parents having disabilities, children have an 
obligational duty to offer assistances to their parents. This finding partially supports 
Becker‟s (2007) in her study on young carers, that young carers often offer unpaid 
services for the person they are caring for. In the findings of this study however, not only 
do children offer unpaid services to the adult beggars, they also get paid for their 
services as well.  
 
Additionally, it is the responsibilities of older children to care for their younger ones. 
That is the reason why most of the children related to the adult beggars played 
babysitting roles for their younger siblings. This finding supports Warren (2007) who 
found in his study that millions of children become mums and they give up their own 
childhood at the expense of taking care of their younger brothers and sisters. According 
to Robson et al. (2006) young people who give care do more domestic work and have a 
lot of responsibilities including tasks like cooking, washing and fetching of water. 
 
Among the challenges that confronted children who served as aides to adult beggars, the 
study found stress, abuse, safety concerns, health and educational challenges as the main 
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challenges that child aides to adult beggars a faced. Children as aides to adult beggars 
faced the challenge of regularly getting tired and burnt out. The long hours of work 
under the sun and walking repeated got most of the children burnt out. Children do not 
have the strength and the ability to work longer hours like adults that is the reason for 
most of the children experiencing regular tiredness. In addition, children perform 
additional activities after a long day‟s work which was cooking, baby sitting and 
running errands for the adult beggars. All these activities placed a lot of strain on the 
energy and strength of the child thereby making them tired and stressed out.  
 
Further, the activities the children performed (especially for children related to the adult 
beggars) denied them of the opportunity to make friends. This however puts a setback in 
the child‟s developmental stage because playing and learning forms an important part of 
a child‟s mental or cognitive development. In addition, a child‟s socializing process is 
important not only for their cognitive development but also helps in building networks 
that can be beneficial in the near future. This finding is consistent with Warren (2007) 
who found that children who give care to adults are mostly restricted to opportunities for 
social, recreational and extra educational participation. Warren (2007) further explained 
that children are also unable to fulfill their future ambitions because of the care they give 
to adults. Also, children on the streets were deprived the opportunity to play the kind of 
games that other children of their age would be engage in as part of the child 
development process (Muchinako et al., 2013). 
 
The findings indicated that children were abused verbally by the adult beggars as well as 
passers-by. The stigmatization attached to begging made most of these children very 
unhappy about the activities they performed. The children faced the stigma attached to 
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the activity, and had to also deal with being verbally abused. The self-dignities of most 
of these children are destroyed and they have low esteem of themselves. In addition to 
the verbal abuses they had to deal with on a daily basis, they experienced sexually 
abuses as well.  
 
The above finding is in congruence to a study by Muchinako et al. (2013) on the 
challenges that streets children face where they reported that street children faced verbal 
abuse from the people to whom they extended their begging bowls and many people 
have negative attitudes towards children who beg and regard them as obstacles or a total 
nuisance so some react in a rude manner to the request for alms by the children.  It also 
supports Osa-Edoh and Ayano (2012) view that street children face sexual abuse, verbal 
abuse, access to health care, and are easily knocked down by vehicles. 
 
Furthermore, the safety on the roads is a major concern for children as aides to adult 
beggars. The findings revealed children and the adult beggars were easily knocked down 
by vehicles because they mostly could not judge on the directions of the moving 
vehicles. Children experienced this challenge because children are very naïve in their 
thinking that is the reason why most children require guidance when it has to do with 
road crossing or road safety measures. Osa-Edoh and Ayano (2012) found that street 
begging could be risky to life especially in areas where there is heavy traffic. Beggars 
risk being run over by careless drivers. The findings are also supported by Prothom 
(2011) in his view that street children being used as street beggars are knocked by 
moving vehicles when the children attempt to receive alms from moving vehicles.  
 
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Furthermore, children faced a lot of health issues as aide to adult beggars. The long 
hours they spend under the sun exposed them to constant headaches and frequent illness. 
The findings also showed that children usually had issues with hygiene and also 
experienced being in contact with people who had airborne diseases as well as other 
communicable diseases; hence they had a high risk of contracting such diseases. Access 
to health care was also a problem for these children because they did not have the 
money to pay for their hospital bills. This supports the findings by Muchinako et al. 
(2013) that unkempt, unwashed hands and feet has negative impact on the health of 
street children and they also face the challenge of accessing health care because there is 
no money for them to do so.  
 
Finally, the findings showed that children who aide adult beggars faced educational 
challenges. The practice of making children abandon school to condone begging has 
effects on the future of children. Few of the children who assisted the adult beggars 
combined begging with school, however, they faced the challenge of irregularly 
attending school and performed poorly academically. This may however, increase their 
chances of dropping out of school if they are unable to improve upon their academic 
work. In addition, many of the children had dropped out of school because of poor 
academic performance and lack of funding to support their educational needs therefore 
opt to be on the streets.  
 
Furthermore, the findings revealed that children were assured of educational support if 
they assist the adult beggars. Nonetheless, this assurance may have only been a ploy by 
the adults to get these children to assist them because most of the children in this study 
were out of school. This finding is consistent with Warren (2007) who found that when 
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children take up care giving roles they miss school and also are unable to take part in 
educational activities which affects their future ambitions because they lack the 
qualifications for those ambitions. 
 
Working as an aide to an adult beggar has negative implications on the general 
wellbeing of the child as well as on their future. According to the Children‟s Act, 1998 
(ACT 560), section six (6), number two (2), every child has the right to life, dignity, 
respect, leisure, liberty, health, education and shelter from their parents. In the case of 
children who are aides to adult beggars they have no shelter for adequate security. They 
sleep on the streets where they get bitten by mosquitoes which expose them to many 
health problems. When it rains, these children get beaten and have to stay all night 
awake because the rain takes over their sleeping place. The effect of this however is that 
these children may lose their lives especially in circumstances where there is flooding. 
Additionally, on the streets, children are sexually abuse which increases their risk of 
teenage pregnancy as well as contracting sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS 
or STI‟s which may be deadly for the children.  
 
Children are also denied leisure which may negatively impact their networking abilities 
hence may affect their future link to some opportunities that could have been available 
should they have networked. Again there are effects on the education of the child 
because children abandon school and engage in assisting adult beggars. The future of 
these children may however look bleak because they not acquire educational 
qualifications that can assist them to be employed in the formal sector. 
 
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More so, another effect of the activities on the future of the beggars‟ aide is that their 
activities may cause a cycle of poverty. The beggars‟ aides could remain in poverty and 
the streets forever if the government does not find a solution to the problem. Children 
may give birth to other children which can be as a result of teenage pregnancy. Also the 
lack of educational qualification means that when the beggars‟ aides grow older, they 
may not have the opportunity to be employed in the formal sector therefore they may 
depend on doing menial jobs that will pay pittance and their children may also become 
street children and may not have the opportunity to go to school or end up abandoning 
school to get jobs to support their parents.  
 
Furthermore, the activities of these children constitute to child labour and exploitation 
and this infringes on the provisions in the Children‟s Act, 1998 (ACT 560).  It is clearly 
against the laws of Ghana that children under 18years of age should be allowed to work. 
According to the Children‟s Act, 1998 (ACT 560) section 87 (2), labour is exploitative 
if it deprives the child of its health and school. Clearing aiding adult beggars is 
exploitative because children are denied education and are faced with various health 
challenges like frequently falling ill due to the constant heat from the sun and lack of 
regular balanced diets. More so, if children remain on the street, they may pick up 
certain vices like armed robbery, drugs addiction etc. which may not only affect the 
child and his family but the country as a whole. This may compromise our security 
system and many people may lose their properties or lives. The future potentials of these 
children could also be lost as a result. 
 
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5.2 Summary of Findings 
Living and working on the street can have negative implications on the general 
wellbeing of the child. It may affect the child physically, psychologically and 
emotionally. Empirical evidence from literature shows that street children survive on the 
margins of society, living in inhumane conditions, suffering from hunger, harassment 
and physical abuse. The activities of street children include doing menial works, selling, 
stealing and shoe shinning. Begging is also an activity street children involve 
themselves with in order to survive. This means that many of these studies on street 
children across developing countries focused on street children and their activities like 
how they live and where they stay.  However, a new phenomenon of street children now 
includes children who assist adults to beg on the streets.  
 
Although aiding adult beggars can have numerous effects on children which includes 
exploitation by the adults -because children are not aware of their rights-, increase in 
crime and alcohol abuse, little is known in literature on children who serve as aide to 
adult beggars on the streets. What are the factors that influence children as aides to adult 
beggars? What are the activities children perform as aides to beggars? What are the 
challenges that are confronted by children as aides to adult beggars?  
 
The study, therefore, was conducted to examine on the whole experiences of children 
used as aide to adult beggars. The main objective of the study was to investigate the 
overall experience of children used as aide to adult beggars. As there is no single cause 
for children living on the streets rather, it is a combination of economic, social, political 
and cultural factors which force children onto the streets, the study adopted the 
following specific objectives; Find out the factors that  influenced children to aide adult 
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beggars on the streets of Accra; Explore the activities that influenced children perform 
when they aide adult beggars on the streets of Accra;  Investigate the challenges 
confronting children aide adult beggars on the streets of Accra. 
 Literature was reviewed thematically, beginning with factors that influenced children to 
the street. It also looked at the activities performed by street children and the challenges 
confronted by street children. The researcher employed Bronfenbrenner‟s ecological 
theory as the framework to support this study. The study adopted qualitative research 
design and employed in-depth interview and observation triangulated with documentary 
analysis. The researcher interviewed 15street children who were aged of 12 years to 17 
years. 
 
The findings of the study revealed that poverty underpinned all factors that influenced 
children as aides to adult beggars. Parental disability and abandonment are among the 
factors that exposes children to aide adult beggars. This is due to the fact that parents 
with disability were abandoned by their husbands, wives or family. The burden on a 
parent to meet a daily need and to make a livelihood caused them to be on the street to 
beg and because they are unable to go begging alone they then required the assistance of 
their children.  
 
Some children travel to the city for business purposes. These children in the quest to 
make some money from doing decent work travel to the major cities such as Accra and 
ended up in aiding adults to beg due to the absence of what they termed as “lucrative” 
jobs. Few of the children were recruited to undertake this activity by peers because it 
was more lucrative and they could earn more money. Few of the children were into 
assisting adult beggars because some people had told their families about how lucrative 
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the business was so they travelled to Accra purposely to beg. Family poverty was main 
reason why children end up on the streets of Accra. All the children were aides to adult 
beggars because they had to work to support the finances of their family. 
 
The activities performed by children who were aides to adult beggars included; care 
giving roles and assisting on the streets. The care giving roles performed by beggars‟ 
aides included buying of food, cooking, washing, sweeping, fetching of water and 
running errands. Although these activities were common among the beggars‟ aides, the 
intensity of the activities varied from related and unrelated child aides. The children who 
are related to the adult beggars did more intense activity than the unrelated once. The 
children who are not related to the adult beggars only fetch water and took the adult 
beggars to their place of rest and then their job was done for the day. Begging took place 
around traffic lights and beggars‟ aides work 12 to 13 hours in a day and earn between 
GHC 20 to GHC 50.  
 
The challenges faced by children who aide adult to beg includes; easily knocked down 
by cars abused and/or tired and burn out and health challenges. The study found that 
children begging on the street often faced the risk of being knocked down or killed by 
vehicles. However, when this happens, the drivers often speed off and these children are 
left to find help for themselves. The study further found that the frequent walking and 
standing often makes the children tired because they had to move from one car to 
another and they did it repeatedly. Also the activities they performed before and after 
work got them more burn out especially for the children who were related to the adult 
beggars. The study found abuse from commuters towards the children as the children 
were insulted either by passengers from commercial vehicles or the adults that they aide 
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and this affected them. Health related challenges were found as contributing factors for 
street children falling ill because they spend more hours standing under the sun. 
 
5.3 Conclusion 
Bronfenbrenner‟s ecological system theory was used primarily as a framework for 
conceptualizing and investigating the experiences of children used as aide to adult 
beggars by specifically finding the factors that expose children to aide adult beggars and 
identify the type of activities that children who aide adult beggars perform for their 
survival as well as identify the challenges faced by children who serve as aide to adult 
beggars on the streets of Accra. 
 
The study applied Bronfenbrenner‟s ecological systems theory which considers the 
influences on a child‟s development within the context of the complex system of 
relationships that form his or her environment by focusing on the children‟s internal 
processes and external influences related to developmental changes. This was explained 
by the study findings as the study revealed that parental disability, abandonment, and 
business purposes, are among the factors that expose children to aide adult beggars on 
the streets of Accra. These children engage in various activities such as domestic chores 
and actual begging. The findings support the theory which suggests that a child‟s 
development is a product of a variety of critical dimensions including context, process, 
time, and the individual‟s personal attributes.  
 
This study from the perspective of the Ecological systems theory found that the far-
reaching change in the structure of the family have an impact on the development of the 
child. This is detrimental to children‟s personal development of skills, knowledge and 
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deprives them of the chance to be in school learning and playing with their friends, and 
enjoying their childhood. Playing and learning forms an important part of every child‟s 
development, because it builds his or her mental, social, and psychological capabilities 
and wellbeing within their communities and Ghana at large. The challenges faced by 
children who aide adult to beg includes; being easily knocked down by cars, abused 
and/or tired and burn out and health surely is inimical to the whole developmental 
process of the child. This is what Bronfenbrenner‟s theory defines as the construct of 
development and the multi-system layers of the environment that influence child 
development. 
 
This study has thus demonstrated that by using Bronfenbrenner‟s ecological system 
theory, the researcher was able to identify and conceptualize the multi-system factors 
that influence a child development in the context of children aide to adult beggars and 
have shown how the child setting and the way in which individual and external forces 
interplay to influence development. The study therefore concluded that, for stakeholders 
to effectively tackle issues of street children rendering aides to adult beggars, it is 
important to understand the processes and the dynamics of these processes that influence 
the children development before formulating policies or applying existing policies to 
curb the street children menace. This study has brought a lot to light using 
Bronfenbrenner‟s ecological system theory to provide insight for those working within 
the contexts of child welfare. 
 
5.4 Recommendations 
The research makes the following recommendations for addressing children being used 
as aide to adult beggars in Accra. The study found significant number of street children 
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aiding adult beggars all across the major road intersections in Accra, although there are 
state laws and interventions such as the social welfare to reduce or manage the 
phenomenon of street children. The following recommendations are tailored based on 
the study findings. 
 
5.4.1 Recommendations for the Government and Non-Governmental Agencies 
For children who aide adult beggars as a result of parent disability, government through 
the Ministry of Gender and Social Orientation through the social welfare system should 
engage and possibly enroll the affected children through any of the National Youth 
Programmes modules to undergo technical or vocational training to equip the child with 
employable skills. Also the vulnerable families who are not enrolled under the current 
LEAP initiatives should be enrolled in order to serve as a support base for them.  
 
Additionally, the state should implement the disability act and all the provisions that are 
listed there. The government should liaise with vocational schools to give training to 
persons with disability in order for them to gain skills to start their own business. In 
addition, the government should assist them in acquiring loans to finance their business. 
Further, state should persecute immediate family members especially, abled husbands 
who abandoned the disabled partners and children to fend for themselves to serve as 
deterrent to others.  
 
The government interventions such as free school uniform, exercise books, school 
feeding programmes and other proposed initiatives such as Free Compulsory Universal 
Basic Education geared towards boosting school enrollment should be enforced so that 
parents with disability can enroll their wards to school. Government should also network 
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with other non-governmental agencies like Catholic Action for street children to 
intensify the street corner education by taking education along most major streets in 
Ghana in order to provide children with some educational opportunities. 
 
There are laws and policies on paper that seek to protect children being exploited for 
business purpose and child recruitment. Despite these, a lot of street children are 
recruited or lured to travel to the cities for non-existing jobs only to be engaged in 
activities that are demeaning to the child. This is practically a human rights abuse and 
measures must be taken by government to ensure that such laws are enforced to save 
these street children from such abuses. This is guaranteed, for example, the constitution 
of Ghana, (1992) frowns on child labor; the Children‟s Act of Ghana (Act 560), firmly 
espouse that, no child under 18 should be subjected to child labor, the researcher 
recommends that, stakeholders (Department of Social Welfare and NGOs) in Accra 
must as sense of urgency, embark on frequent public education on the dangers of 
children working on the streets and their right as citizens. Finally, NGOs that work with 
street children (e.g. Assembly of God Relief Agency) can provide short term relief such 
as a mosquito nets or a place they can sleep at night. 
 
5.4.2 Recommendations for the media 
The media should use an educational campaign to sensitize the general public. Firm 
concentration must duel on the importance of child education and the advantages that 
the family, community, the country and the world as a whole stand to gain if all forms of 
street children issues are eradicated. 
 
 
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5.4.3 Recommendations for Social Workers   
Social workers should organize educational campaigns through community durbars and 
forums, festivals, and concerts in the rural areas where these children migrate from and 
the message carried out in the predominant local language of the area to let the people 
understand that it is illegal to engage children on the street for business purpose. In 
addition, parents in the rural communities should be educated by social workers through 
community talks and gender activists on the criminal aspect of selling or giving one‟s 
child voluntarily to strangers or people to send to the main cities centers for non-existent 
jobs. This will aid to reduce the problem of child exploitation. 
 
Also, Social Workers should advocate for persons with disability to get employment in 
the formal sector. For example, should workers can advocate for persons with disability 
to be employed in all the toll booths in Ghana. This can assist them take care of 
themselves as well as the needs of their families. Again, Social Workers should liaise 
with appropriate agencies such as micro finance institutions to solicit for funds on credit 
basis to assist parents with disability to start an income generating business. This would 
help them earn profit to cater for the needs of their children. 
 
 Additionally, there is the need for more research on this phenomenon, especially, in 
other regional capital cities in Ghana because the social problem of street children has 
become a stain on the conscience of all developing countries including Ghana. This will 
help make appropriate recommendations to inform policy makers to protect children‟s 
rights. Again, social workers should engage schools and educate children about their 
right to education as citizens per the 1992 constitution to understand that education is 
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key to any individual, community and nation development and that anyone who is 
denied education is inimical to their future growth and development.  
 
 
  
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APPENDIX 
GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR BEGGARS‟ AIDES 
1.  Demographic Data: 
a.  Name 
b.  Sex 
c.  Age 
2.   Have you ever been to school? 
3.  Since when have you been in this partnership or activity? 
4.  What is your relationship to the adult beggar? 
Questions on factors that influence children as aides to adult beggars 
1. Can you tell me about how you ended up being aides to adult beggars? 
2. What are the reasons why you aide adult beggars 
3. In your opinion who benefits from your work? (probe) 
4. What are the benefits involved in your activities? 
5. Ever engaged in other economic activities besides begging? 
 
Questions on activities performed by the children as aides to adult beggars 
1. What are some of the things you do?  
2. Do you aide the adult daily? (probe) 
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3. What other things do you do aside aiding the adult to beg? 
4. How many hours do you engage in the activity per day? 
5. How is the division of labour negotiated? 
6. How is the revenue from the activity distributed? 
7.  Who manages the money you get from the activity? 
8.   How is the money shared between you two? 
9.   Do you have a fixed location? 
10.   How do you see your role in this partnership? 
Questions on Challenges that confronted children as aides to adult beggars 
1. What are some of the challenges you face? (probe) 
2. How are you able to cope? 
3. In what others ways does begging affect you? 
4. In your opinion what will you like to be done for you to live the quality of life as 
a child? 
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