Unwanted Life – Unwanted Children: Going to the Street for Safety

Background:  Poverty, mobility and HIV/AIDS have had a negative impact on children’s safety net in a number of African countries. Studies have found an over-representation of adolescent girls in large urban areas due to rural to urban migration for mostly domestic work. This study investigated the girl child’s migration to urban areas to better understand their vulnerabilities.

 Objective: To evaluate the extreme vulnerabilities of girls that migrated to Abidjan to work as domestic workers but ended up abused on the streets and sometimes involved in commercial sexual exploitation.  

 Methods: The study used a purposive mixed method design to examine factors that could lead to extreme vulnerabilities for these young girls in Côte d'Ivoire that sought protection at a drop-in center in Abidjan. The study recruited and interviewed 334 girls using validated measures that had been previously used on similar population. An additional 30 participants were selected from the 334 girls for in-depth interviews.

 Results: The study found a mix of girls, some born in Abidjan (N=100), but most that had recently moved to the city (N=234). Girls not from Abidjan were younger on average (M=14.9, SD=2.6) compared to those born in the city (M=15.4, SD =2.2). They also reported higher levels of abuse and were engaged more in commercial sexual exploitation to survive. About 50% of the girls were brought to the city by an aunt but ended working as domestics. A majority (59%) of girls engaged in commercial sexual exploitation had worked as domestic worker but fled to live and work on the streets upon experiencing high levels of abuse in the homes where they were employed.   

 Conclusions: Communities with high rural to urban child migration population should work hard to understand the issues these children face. Countries should develop an alternative system of protection for extreme vulnerable children to protect from harm.