Physical Environment
Most children growing up in the global South live in neighborhoods of poor physical quality. Physical characteristics of these environments include high levels of air and water pollutants; nonexistent or inadequate collection of household waste; poor drainage; poor sanitation; proximity to busy street traffic; and limited or absent access to childhood resources such as open green space, grocery stores, schools, hospitals, and play space . Many of these neighborhoods are also unsafe because of high traffic volumes and limited street lighting .
For a middle level economy, service provision is expected to be of good quality. However, for a number of reasons, the government of Kenya has not been able to raise its bar with regards to this. Among the poor households, where most street connected children hail from, provision of health care, water, sanitation and safety still has a lot of gaps that need to be bridged. Street connected children experience these conditions more than other children. Their lives are regularly on the streets where they lack water and sanitation facilities. The streets are overcrowded and they lack play and safety facilities. There is high exposure to cold, rain, direct sun rays, hunger, noise, and air pollution. These conditions impact negatively on the street connected children’s physical and emotional health. Noise affects their hearing (Effects of the Physical Environment on Children’s Development by Kimerly Kopko, PhD. Extension Associate). Another study also found poor performance on neuro behavior to be associated with traffic related air pollution.
The above implies that there is need for urgent attention to the plight of street connected children to ensure that they are not left long on the streets, since this is likely to impact negatively towards their realization of full potential and long lasting empowerment.
