Objective: Social intervention programme for supporting street children addresses the problems relating to working and living environment of the target group of population. In this context, this paper seeks to examine the role of social intervention in addressing the socio-economic problems of street children in the regional state of Oromia, Ethiopia.
Methods: A comprehensive survey plan is administered to collect the required information on street children from the 200 selected sample respondents in the study area. For the institution specific survey, only three local NGOs working for social and environmental issues of street children in our survey area are considered.
Results: Our empirical evidence indicate that more than three fourth of the total sample street children are currently supported through social institutions. However, only half of a quarter surveyed children were also supported by these organizations before become street children. Out of the total number of supported children, thirty percent of the children have their parents alive and more than half of supported children have either their mother or father alive. Moreover, sixteen percent children have lost their parents. More than 330 families of vulnerable children have already established their own saving and credit association as a cooperative.
Conclusions: The alternative intervention model is found effective in yielding three broad outcomes: job related, service related and health related outcomes.