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Abandoned
children bear brunt of Zimbabwe crisis
ZimOnline
January
10, 2006
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6KW2YW?OpenDocument
HARARE --
Fourteen-year old Sarah Chitambo is an orphan with a maturity
well beyond her years.
With her two-year
old brother Simba strapped on her back, she spends the day dodging
traffic at a busy intersection in Harare, a begging bowl in hand.
While the majority
of motorists probably consider her a nuisance, Chitambo is undeterred,
as she is fully cognisant of the issues that are at stake here --
survival in a cold and uncaring city.
Chitambo is
among thousands of young children, the majority of them orphans,
who have been forced to beg on the streets in a desperate bid for
survival.
Social workers
blame the AIDS pandemic, which is mowing down at least 2 000 Zimbabweans
every week, for the increasing numbers of abandoned children on
Zimbabwe’s streets.
To make matters
worse, traditional social safety nets as represented by the extended
family have virtually collapsed as the country battles its worst
economic recession which has seen inflation shooting beyond 500
percent.
"I have
realised that we tend to make more money on the streets when I am
accompanied by my brother. People seem to be more sympathetic when
they see this young child.
"So I am
forced to bring Simba here every day in order to make more money.
This is how we have survived over the past two years," said
Chitambo.
Moosa Kasimonje,
the founder and executive director of Just
Children Foundation, a welfare organisation that looks after
orphans and abandoned children in Harare, said poverty has forced
families to move away from the custom of taking in orphaned children.
Even well-wishers,
who are also struggling to make ends meet, have also found it difficult
to assist.
"More and
more children are finding themselves on the streets because the
surviving relatives cannot manage to take them in. Poverty has caused
untold suffering to our people and children are bearing the brunt,"
he said.
Kasimonje said
although there were still some individuals who still chip in with
donations in cash and kind, the value of the donations has been
severely eroded by inflation which currently stands at more than
502.4 percent, one of the highest in the world.
"Our local
currency has lost so much value such that a donation of $100 000
which used to buy a dozen loaves two years ago, can now buy only
two loaves. We are struggling but God has been faithful - the children
have not gone to bed without a meal," said Kasimonje.
Zimbabwe is
going through a severe economic crisis which has seen almost all
basic commodities like sugar, maize-meal, washing soap and cooking
oil all in critical short supply. Fuel and basic medicines are also
in critical short supply because there is nor hard cash to import
the commodities.
The main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change party as well as Western governments
accuse President Robert Mugabe of ruining Zimbabwe’s economy, one
of the strongest in sub-Saharan Africa at independence from Britain
25 years ago.
But Mugabe denies
the charge blaming the crisis on sabotage by Britain and her allies
whom he says are punishing him for seizing land from the minority
whites for redistribution to landless blacks six years ago.
Non-governmental
organisations that deal with children's welfare accuse Mugabe's
government of neglecting the welfare of children preferring to allocate
more money to defence and security.
"We are
not getting support from the government under the social welfare
programme. At times they pay fees for the children but most of the
times the money does not come and we have decided to just live without
their support," Kasimonje said.
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