Farida Habib, Yasmeen Mumtaz, Mansoor Ahmad.
Causes of homelessness among children.
Biomedica Jan ;26(2):109-13.

Introduction: One of the most prominent definitions of homelessness is that of the Stewart B. Mckinney Homeless Assistance, Act of 1987, which was the first major federal response to the ho-melessness in the US which defines homeless as; an individual who lacks a fixed, regular and ade-quate night – time residence. Identify the causes of homelessness among children and list the spe-cific health problems of homeless children. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive cross sectional study, performed at the Noriabad Edhi Center, Karachi in which 100 children were randomly selected. Data was collected through a structured pretested questionnaire. It included the questions regarding different reasons of leaving home and the health conditions of the homeless children. Informed consent was taken from all chil-dren and it was made sure that children did not face any inconvenience in their follow up visits for the purpose of this study. Results: A total of forty six percent of children residing at Noriabad Edhi Center were in the age group between 14 – 18 years. Most of the children (54%) belonged to the province of Sindh. Most of children (35%) left home because of violence by the parents followed by financial problem in 31% of cases. Thirty five percent of the children were left in the Edhi Center by their own parents. A large proportion (65%) of children was habitual to addiction and among them 23 had domestic violence while 20 had financial problem at home. It was disclosed that among the 65% of children who were addicted, 20% were addicted to ghutka and similar percentage of children were addicted to chalia; while 15% were involved in cigarette smoking and 10% in glue sniffing. Most of the children i.e. 43% got the drugs through their friends. Most of the children left home due to domestic violence and financial problem. A sizable proportion of children residing at Edhi Center were indulged in substance abuse. The fact that children had access to a large variety of intoxicating substance na-mely ghutka, glue sniffing and cigarette smoking.

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