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Community efforts on child rights face economic challenges
Sizani Weza, Embassy of Sweden
November 15, 2005

Harare, Zimbabwe - The Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa (Sahrit)-administered child rights project in Murehwa (60 km North East of Harare) has a capacity building component for parents and youths. However, the sustainability of the income generating component of the project faces serious challenges attributable to the declining economy of the country. Economic factors such as inflation and the increasing costs of inputs and transport are impacting negatively on progress towards sustainability.

According to the Sahrit Programme Manager, Ms. Emma Gweshe, the child rights project aims to support the development of societies that proactively take measures and actions to ensure the realisation and protection of the rights of all children.

"The strategy focuses on the development and demonstration of models of community support that cater for the needs and rights of the most vulnerable children", says Ms. Gweshe.

A distinctive feature of the project is the focus on the duties and roles of other actors, accountability for performance of roles and capacity building. Its target consists of nearly 14 000 children in four villages from an average of 2,000 households per village.

The community has in the past managed to pay school fees for some school going children orphaned as a result of HIV/Aids. In the process, the acknowledgement that the problem is communal has reduced stigma and discrimination against affected children and households.

With inflation now pegged at 411 percent per annum, the income generated from the income generating projects such as permaculture, mushroom growing and community-owned fields (Zunde) is insufficient. While it has managed to pay school fees for some orphaned children in the past, 2006 will present challenges.

One of the most prominent of these income generating projects is mushroom cultivation. It requires skill, care and a little patience.

Ms. Emengilda Njenje (36), one of the beneficiaries of the project, confesses that her mushroom growing project in 2003 collapsed after taking off because of contaminated mushroom spores procured from a local supplier. This year, she resumed her mushroom project in June, thanks to a grant from the Sahrit. This time the project has been successful. She speaks proudly of her produce, but her spirits dampen when she talks about the returns.

"I will not buy clothes or food from this income. I want to buy more spore and I hope to be able to feed and dress out of the proceeds", says Ms. Njenje.

Ms. Njenje says she anticipates Z$2 million (US$34.00) from her mushroom crop in December 2005. She is a foster parent to five orphans, three of whom are secondary school-going.

Ms. Sandra Gono (16), one of 11 orphaned children living in a household, narrated the household’s experiences with the family’s vegetable garden project. The garden has tomatoes, bananas, butternuts and cucumbers. Sandra (not related to Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono) admits that "the profits from the sales are quickly eroded by transport and other input costs". The family has so far managed a net income of Z$3,000,000.00 (US$50.00) and they hope to use some of it to cover the school fees of six children, three of whom are at secondary school level.

Ironically, secondary schools have submitted proposals to increase fees to over Z$1 million (US$ 17) every three months. According to a government official in the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture, the fees will be approved, and that is definite.

It will be difficult for communities to continue paying school fees from the declining incomes generated from their projects.

"Sida is ready to continue assisting but can do very little to compensate for the hyper-inflation," says Göran Engstrand, head of Development Cooperation at the Swedish Embassy in Harare.

But the community can take consolation on the knowledge that they have managed to raise awareness on the rights of the child. Parents, including traditional leaders, periodically receive human rights training. And the content of the community-run pre-school curriculum tells the story. Early learning centre scholars sing songs against behaviours that expose one to the virus that causes the AIDS condition. And some songs deride child abuse and the message is plain: "leave my body alone, don’t touch it or I will cry- mai weeeee!"

Sida has had to adjust some of the programmatic components of its child rights programmes in Zimbabwe to address the worsening situation on the ground.

"The feeding components in schools will be intensified while a proactive focus on human rights and the rights of the child will be compulsory components of all our support," says Alpha Chapendama, Programme Officer at Sida.

In Masvingo (300 km South East of Harare), a feeding component has been introduced to the Catholic Development Commission (Cadec)-administered child rights programme because of the high number of school dropouts and truancy as a result of hunger. In Chipinge, where the Farm Orphan Support Trust (FOST) works with vulnerable children in former commercial farms, support will no longer be provided for school uniforms but resources will be provided for more urgent issues related to feeding, school fees and text books.

*Sizani Weza is Communications Officer at the Embassy of Sweden in Harare. Contact: Tel +263 4 302 636, Mobile: +263 91 376 649, E-mail: sizani.weza@sida.se

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