Social Work Practice for Child Welfare in Mozambique: The Case of Street Children in Maputo City- Baixa 1975-2006
MARRENGULA, MIGUEL (2007)
MARRENGULA, MIGUEL
2007
Sosiaalityö - Social Work
Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2007-09-28
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-17249
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-17249
Tiivistelmä
In Mozambique, the 16 years civil war had a deep and direct impact on women and children’s lives, where families were displaced and family integrity became in a deep chaos. Mozambican government, based on international statements of children's rights and human rights, has been implementing projects and developing actions to promote child welfare and to restore family integrity destroyed during the war. This has been done with the collaboration of different international institutions and NGO’s. After 14 years of post civil war many actions took place to promote family integrity in Mozambique, but the street children is continuously an increasing phenomenon in urban areas of Mozambique. In my master’s thesis research on street children, I discussed the relation between social work practices and social policies in Mozambique and their effectiveness on street children welfare. The aim of this research was to identify the main factors for the increasing number of street children and to analyse the effectiveness of social policies and social work practices for child welfare in actual context. Using Human agency approach I analyzed the past and present role of social work practice for child welfare in Mozambique, and its challenges for future social work practices for child welfare. Empirical data was gathered in a qualitative research perspective, using participant observation, interviews to street children, to social workers in Mozambique, and to governmental workers related to child welfare and as well a bibliographical review. My findings show that there is a gap between institutional practice and social policies defined for child welfare; domestic violence, child labour and orphaned situation of children are the main factors influencing children to decide to live on streets. Community based social work is proposed as alternative to promote child rights and child protection in Mozambique.
Key Words: Social work practice, social policy child welfare, street children.
Key Words: Social work practice, social policy child welfare, street children.