Undergraduate thesis.

This phenomenological study was conducted to determine and understand the lived experiences of street children who spend most of their childhood living along the streets, their coping mechanism in response to numerous problem and survival status on how they become successful individuals now, behind those adversaries they encountered in the street. This research has six respondents- two females and four male- who are successful individual now. The study was conducted within the limits of the National Capital Region (NCR) and the Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (CALABARZON) areas. The phenomenological research design was utilized using the method of in-depth, open- ended question to construct more comprehensive knowledge of the phenomena. There are five themes drawn from the lived experiences of street children getting access to quality education: (1) Poverty Faced by the Street Children, the researchers explored why children are working and living on the streets due to poverty, large families, unemployment, and limited access to basic social services. (2) Discrimination and Bullying, most of the participants were experienced physical sexual, substance abuse, and they revealed the discrimination they experience from working on the streets. (3) Food Intake a Day, due to the lack of financial support, those children are the most fragile and exposed to very harsh dangerous elements. A lot of them suffer from hunger, cold, sickness, different kinds of diseases, abuse, and exploitation. (4) Angels Sent from Above, researchers also explore those people who have a good heart, which has helped them become successful individuals, and (5) Experiences are the Best Motivation, which allows the researchers to understand how those experience motivated them to become successful individuals. The findings of this study revealed that extreme poverty and lack of financial support are the main reason why street children could not access quality education. Due to the factors such as large families, discrimination, abuse, hunger, and sickness they have experienced while living on the street. They prefer to be street children and work as bearers, parking attendants, and beggars to meet their day-to-day needs; however, the non- government organization made efforts to ensure those street children get access to quality education for them to be able to achieve their goals and to become successful individuals now.