Institute of Social Communication

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    The Role the Media Play In Facilitating the Fostering Of Street Children
    (Tangaza University College, 2006) Kivondo, Lawrence
    We might have all encountered them, either evoking a feeling of sympathy, hatred-sympathy-anger, and gratitude depending on the nature of the encounter. So, who are these so-called 'street children'? Persons, human beings whose rights have been violated, marginalized people, and somehow victimized and ostracized by the society; persons whose well-being seems to be no one's responsibility. To someone this may seem unreal, but this is in fact the condition of most street children. But why is it that most members of the society have negative attitudes towards the street children? Social psychologists define attitudes as beliefs that predispose us to act and feel in a certain way'. This definition has three components which can be exemplified by the societies attitude towards the street children such as the belief that street children are generally deviant, which leads to feeling of mistrust, leading to a disposition to behave in a certain way, such as readiness to be rude to them or to ignore their plight. In general the street children are viewed in a negative perspective by most members of the society; however this negative attitude can be changed. In order to change the negative attitudes towards street children there is need for better understanding of the street children phenomenon by members of the society. This is not easy since most members of the society tend to believe that the street children phenomenon is as a result of aberrant people or families. This belief negates the fact that the street children phenomenon is the consequence of a culmination of interrelated factors. In order to address the street children phenomenon, the negative attitude of the society towards the street children must first of all be changed and what better way of I Cl P. LAAST, "Psychology of a Person". 6 1 changing attitudes is there today than using the media? In this era it has been noted that the media have emerged as being one of the relevant agents of socialization making them an ideal instrument for societal transformation. The idea of using communication as a critical instrument of transformation can be traced back to World War II, when the broadcast media were extensively used for persuasion, propaganda and psychological warfare2. Later on, after the end of the war, lessons learned about communications were used in many different settings to respond to a wide variety of needs, especially advertising social marketing and the diffusion of innovations. Apart from been used as a tool for marketing, it was discovered that the media could be used ideally for community development as community media. Community media have been used in various parts of the world for the transformation of society. This paper will examine a project of St Martin CSA, in Nyahururu, where the community has chosen the fostering of street children as a way of rehabilitating them and turning them into positive members of the society. However, the street children programme is not that successful, because most of the people of Nyahururu town have negative attitudes about the street children. By proposing a communication project, we hope that the negative attitudes of the people will be changed, hence facilitating the fostering of street children.