Don’t Call Me a Street Child: Estimation and Characteristics of Urban Street Children in Georgia, 2009. by Katarzyna Wargan and Larry Dershem. UNICEF and USAID.
The Urban Street Children Study in Georgia, with joint support from USAID and UNICEF, has been carried out by Save the Children in collaboration with a multitude of state, non-governmental and academic actors. The research included four large urban centers in Georgia: Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi and Batumi1. The locations were determined through discussions with several stakeholders, based on a preliminary street children mapping exercise conducted by Save the Children in 2006. Key informants reported that the highest observed numbers of street children were in these four cities. This study is the first comprehensive assessment of street children ever done in Georgia and sets a unique precedent as few such studies have been carried out anywhere in the world. The research aimed to provide estimated numbers of street children in the four target urban locations and describe their characteristics so that evidence-based policy and programmatic recommendations could be drawn.
