Los chinos y el orientalismo moderno en la literatura peruana

4.5.1 Identification and selection of participants

Thirty three (33) in-depth interviews were conducted over a period of four months from March 2010 to July 2010. Of the respondents, 23 participants were male and 10 were female. Only seven participants were above the age of 18, of whom two participants were male and five were female. Five participants did not complete the interview process, so only the complete information from 28 participants has been documented in the research. The reasons given for refusing to complete the interview process were their friends being around them, shyness and children being busy with activities such as seeing and meeting with other people or friends.The average age range of the participants was from 13 to 18 years.

For the purpose of the study, ‘street children’ were considered to be children ‘of’

the street, mainly of an age range from 8 to 18, but including some above 18 years. This gave me an opportunity to learn retrospectively about the risks and vulnerability of street children over a period of time. The street children spent their childhood and eventually became young adults on the street over an extended period of time; the inclusion of participants above the age of 18 was therefore in order to learn how the risks and vulnerability increase over time among the street children and in society.

111 4.5.2 Sampling - inclusion and exclusion criteria

This research included children and young people aged 8 to 23 years who had been living on the street for at least the preceding three months at the time of the study. This age group ensured that young adults who had grown up on the streets, and were able to retrospectively reflect on their lives as children on the streets, were included in the study.

4.5.3 Research settings

The study area was located in the Kathmandu valley in a range of street locations (including tourist centres, markets, bus stations and cinema hall). Observations and interviews took place in three main sites. These were different locations (close to one another) in the Kathmandu Valley and were selected simply because they were places where street children congregated and children moved freely between the sites. The sites are: Ratna Park - an open air auditorium, Thamel and the Pashupati area. Detailed discussion of my observations in these three sites is provided in Chapter Six. Choosing these different sites was simply an attempt to gain a greater understanding of children’s living and working conditions. These interview sites were also chosen because they offered a private place where the children felt safe, relaxed, and comfortable and could be apart from onlookers, thus protecting their anonymity. It was not appropriate to analyse the data according to the sites they were gathered as I was studying a single phenomenon and the same group of children migrated between the three. The interviews were held in informal settings in a casual manner, in order to make the children feel safe and at ease to speak freely.

112 4.5.3.1 Ratna Park

Ratna Park is open market of the Kathmandu valley. Children gather in this place as there is an economic generation opportunity. They work as casual labourers as there are lots of small shops and eateries.

4.5.3.2 Thamel

Thamel is touristic area. As this is the tourist area children get different

opportunities for working and earning. Begging from tourists is a popular way of earning in this area.

4.5.3.3 Pashupati temple area

Pashupati is the place where there are lots of corners, sheds and shelter. It is also a place for economic generation opportunity. Leather products are not allowed inside the temple premises and children can earn money by guarding the leather accessories of visitors. They also have the opportunity to get food as hundreds of devotees visit the Temple, and religious people offer food and money to the poor.

4.5.4 Sampling strategy

The fieldwork started with a period of direct observation of street children in street locations (tourist centres, markets, cinema hall and temple) in the

Kathmandu valley. At the beginning, during the observation period, I took notice of the locations where they usually gathered and the time when they gathered.

They were a difficult group to access (Panter Brick, 2002), so the strategy was kept open as to where and whom to approach. I tried to seek any street child who appeared in the street except for those influenced by drugs and alcohol. The street children who were ‘high’ in mood were identified by personal observation of

113 smell (of alcohol), appearance and physical characteristics. Interested participants were identified by their willingness to speak to me, their openness, interests and natural curiosity. After finding a potential participant, I tried to talk to them privately and invited the participant to take part in an interview away from the group. Initially with informal conversation, and subsequently by succeeding in building up a rapport, I was able to recruit participants to be interviewed. Besides direct contact with the street children, some members of the sample were collected by the snowballing sampling procedure (i.e. selecting children connected in some way to achild being interviewed).

4.5.5 Data collection instruments

A field notebook and an interview guide were used as instruments for the research. An observation guide was devised to note ethnographic information.

This guide was designed to record information based on the objectives of the study regarding risks factors of HIV/AIDS and STIS. The observation guide shown in Appendix C comprised of broad themes underpinning the study: the nature of the settings, children’s interaction with people, children’s characteristics, and events (eating patterns, health and hygiene, sexual behaviour, drugs and alcohol abusing behaviour) that determine risks to HIV/STIs among street children.

Although a semi-structured interview guide was used for the in-depth interviews, the participants were encouraged to tell their stories in response to open-ended questions based on the research questions.

The guide enabled me to maintain focus on the objectives of the study, but also to let the participant speak openly about his/her experience. Therefore the interview maintained a structure, but if new topics arose, the participant was free to speak about them. The interview guide covered issues based on the reasons that push children onto the street, knowledge about HIV/AIDS/STIs, sexual behaviour and

114 attitudes. A socio-demographic schedule was also prepared to gather personal information from the street children.The research guide was developed based on USAID/WHO studies, Nepal Demography Health Survey (NDHS 2007) and a review of the literature related to the conceptual framework of the study.

Interview questions were made simple, applicable and understandable to the children, and excluded any words that could harm or offend them. The Interview guide also covered questions on demographic data. This guide is presented in Appendix D and E. The interview guide was developed in English first and then translated into Nepali. The interviews were conducted in the participants’ native language and then translated into English by myself for analysis.

4.5.6 Data collection procedures

Data were obtained via observation and in-depth interviews. I was properly prepared with field notebook, pen and ideas to note down what was seen and heard in order to collect information by the observation method. Information was taken by observing what the children were doing, what they were trying to accomplish and why they did this. Documentation of the observation was

organized by different pre-determined themes based on evidence such as physical description (health and dress), diet and patterns of eating, sexual behaviour, drug use, abuse and the patterns of interactions between street children and with the general population. My thoughts on events and experiences were also noted to demonstrate the reflexive aspect of the research that is described in Chapter Five. I made notes immediately after the observation had occurred, so ensuring that an event was not missed and in order to give accurate data. Otherwise, postponing the expansion of notes could lead to events being forgotten, because the memory fades quickly (Mack et al., 2005).

Information from the observation was collected along with the in-depth interviews throughout the whole duration of the fieldwork. Street children that I met during the observation process were invited as potential participants in interviews. After

115 getting young people’s consent after the building-up of rapport, arrangements for formal in-depth interviews were made. The participants who agreed to take part in the interviews were fully informed about the research before starting the

interview. Potential participants were told the aims of the research and the kinds of topics that would be asked in the interviews. All the respondents signed a consent form that was developed in the participants’ regional language, which confirmed that they were willing to participate in the study. The interview was then conducted using the semi-structured interview guide in a face-to-face informal conversational style. Each interview was approximately two hours in length, including obtaining consent at the beginning and informal talk at the end of interview. Young people determined how much time they wanted to contribute to the study.

4.5.7 Data collection

All of the participants were given an option to have their interview audio recorded. Each participant was initially introduced to the tape recorder and I played a small sample of recordings for them to hear the voices before starting. In some instances I noted the participants’ unwillingness to speak in front of a machine (audio recorder). I also realised that using an audio recorder was not an appropriate technique for interviewing street children because they were restless, and sometimes irresponsive. Also, the interview process in the street was not precise; young pople frequently interrupted conversations, which resulted in long pauses that disturbed the fluency of the recording process. Furthermore,

conducting interviews in a busy place with background noise sometimes gave unclear recordings.

In those instances where the participant’s preference was to have information noted down as opposed to being audio recorded, I took notes during and after the interview. Pope & Mays (2006) suggest that there is a possibility of data alteration through writing notes, as writing during an interview can interfere with the

116 interview process, and notes written afterwards are likely to miss out important details. It is true that writing notes afterwards has the potential of missing out information, as the memory fades quickly and it would be difficult to remember everything that was said in a one or two hour interview. However, my experience was that writing notes during an interview does not have to mean losing

information, as it is possible to control the interview speed and to clarify

misunderstandings. Balancing the situation, I managed to take some notes at the time of interview and wrote key words for some of the information, because paying attention and listening to the participants was also essential, (I considered that continual writing would show inattention and lack of care towards the participants). Written notes from the interviews were translated into English to proceed to analysis.