Zimbabwe: A lost childhood

In a tattered dress and barefoot Nozipo Tawatya* walks aimlessly around her late parents’ dilapidated home in the suburb of Mabvuku/Tafara in Zimbabwe.  Being the elder sister in a family of three, she was forced to drop from school. She wonders how she can make ends meet through her seemingly insurmountable challenges.

 

At 13, Nozipo finds life difficult and unbearable on a daily basis. “They used to call us AIDS orphans, but now they call us Nozi, Kuda and Mary.” Both parents died of AIDS in 2004 leaving a void in her life that cannot be filled by anyone else. She then became the head of the household.

 

Her and her siblings are isolated as the extended family has deserted and distanced themselves from them. But this was not before they grabbed the proceeds from the family estate, a common occurance in many families. “It is very sad, distressing and embarrassing to be the head of the family as a minor. We still need food, clothes, medication, school fees and accommodation,” Nozipo says.

 

“By the time I was 11 I had to drop out of school because I had to take care of my mother who had become critically ill. I have stayed at home until now.”

 

Research shows that child headed families are vulnerable and this is common across Southern African Countries. Although some organisations like Total Control of The Epidemic, Action Aid and District Action Aids Committees (DAACs) are helping families through distributing food packs, it is not sufficient and it is not provided on a regular basis. Like many children, Nozipo tells of how they have experienced loss of income and productive labour leading to increased poverty and poorer nutrition, also drawing down of savings and sale of assets.

 

Nozipo laments how she and her siblings have no stable source of love and care from anyone. This has caused low-self esteem, self-blame and insecurity and affected them psychologically. Nozipo appears to have lost trust in close relatives and is beginning to show tendencies that indicate she could end up having difficulties in establishing secure relationships either from friends or relatives at any point.

 

Nozipo has had to work hard to supplement the family’s income.  While others of her age go to school she joins the women from the market to go and hoard her vegetables to sell at street corners. She is fully aware that this is illegal since Operation Murambatsvina that banned street vending without hawkers licences and at undesignated places.  However she seems to know her way around the police. 

 

But this increases her vulnerability as she associates with older women and is susceptible to abuse by fellow traders or by men who may see her as an easy target for sexual exploitation.

 

Nozipo’s situation is typical of a number of children who do not have anywhere to go.  Relatives are more reluctant to take on extra responsibilities because of the current harsh economic climate in Zimbabwe. This has often led to loss of cultural knowledge and identity when close family relatives reject the children of parents who have died of AIDS. This creates further challenges for the children. For example, who will pay or receive the bride price or dowry when they marry? These are important aspects of African culture that have a huge bearing on how certain orphaned children develop into adults.

 

There is need to identify all children in exceptional need and to promote support for their well being in the community. Care and support strategies must be sustainable over time, be able to assist large and rapidly increasing number of children orphaned by HIV and AIDS and or in exceptional need, be culturally acceptable and take into account the multiple developmental needs. This means support efforts must be primarily community driven and owned or at least be community supported with external assistance.