Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Children more vulnerable after 'Murambatsvina'
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
April 22, 2006

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=11&id=632

A recent survey conducted by Women and AIDS Support Network (WASN) has established that several thousands of children were victims of the government sanctioned "Operation Murambatsvina" which displaced more than 700 000 people last year.

The survey was carried out in 20 schools in Harare and the few areas that were sampled reveal a frightening pattern of children being displaced by the government's ill-advised move.

The operation launched last May right in the middle of the cold season was condemned internationally.

After the operation, it emerged that the ruling class was uneasy with the level of disgruntlement among ordinary people because of the regime's poor economic and political policies.

Rugare Primary School had 1 753 pupils before the operation. It was found that after the operation, 397 children could not be accounted for.

Chitsere Primary lost 313 children to the Tsunami.

At Tafara Primary School, there were 1 785 children before the clean up but 1 489 after the exercise, meaning the whereabouts and welfare of 296 children is unknown.

Epworth primary school authorities are not aware of what happened to 250 children as they disappeared from the school during the clean up exercise.

Several schools lost on average between 50 to 80 pupils and no known programmes have been put in place by the government to cater for their welfare.

There have been reports of increases in cases of child labour on farms and in the number of child prostitutes around the country.

Mary Sandasi, the executive director of WASN, said: "Overall, the girl child has been greatly affected as most parents found it difficult to leave them with their neighbours or relatives. As a result, a greater percentage of the children who moved were girls.

They also dropped out of school. When girls drop out of school, chances of getting involved in sexual activities become high, thereby increasing the chances of being infected with HIV and STIs."

Sandasi said teachers who had been interviewed complained of losing very intelligent pupils while infants who were suffering from HIV had also been affected.

She said her organisation was deeply concerned about the fact that a lot of children were now exposed to abuse after the displacement.

"Some of the children now stay with relatives and this increases the chances of children being abused as people are squatting in small single rooms. Some cases of rape have been reported to the school heads and senior teachers," Sandasi said.

She said the research was designed to assess the impact of displacement on school-going girls and the impact on children who were on treatment for HIV and Aids.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP