Human Trafficking in [Zimbabwe] [other countries]Street Children in [Zimbabwe Child Prostitution in [Zimbabwe] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Zimbabwe.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** One way street – to despair: life for Zimbabwe's street
kids Sokwanele, December 10th, 2007 www.sokwanele.com/articles/zimbabwesstreetkids_10122007 [accessed 18 August 2011] Mandla sleeps under a cardboard box and
survives by scavenging for food from the city’s many overflowing and
evil-smelling rubbish bins. He has only been on the streets for a few weeks
but has learnt quickly, as needs must in this dangerous and disease-ridden
environment. There is no one else to turn to for help. His few surviving
relatives do not even know where he is. On the streets the law of the jungle
operates - literally the survival of the fittest. Frequently it is only rapid
reflexes and a swift pair of feet that keep the inhabitants of this shadowy
world out of really serious trouble. Mandla Mpofu (*) is one of Uphold Children's Dignity Philani Nyatsanza,
The Herald, allafrica.com/stories/200904080118.html [partially accessed 18 August 2011 - access restricted] It has become common parlance, so
much that we have ignored the consequences of such labels as "street
children" and "Aids orphans".
In simple terms, this is not just naming, but naming and shaming in
the same breathe. The power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs
18:21). Why should a child be made to
pay the price of something over which they had neither power, say, like losing
a parent to an HIV-related illness?
The tragedy is that such shaming has a very high price because,
whether we see it or not, it will always haunt the child, looming over them
like some spectre of evil. Every time you call them
"street children" or "Aids orphans" you are prophesying
into their lives (words are carriers of spiritual power) and at the end of
the day, they act and behave in a manner consistent with what you have labelled them.
So, instead of getting answers to the problem of children making a
"home" in the streets, we exacerbate this socio-economic ill by
condemnation through labelling. "Street children" seems
to have become almost like a trade name, because it is drawn directly from
the disadvantaged children's characteristically grimy lifestyles in the
streets. But whether they live and
work in streets, in families and communities, they are just children. ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF – www.unicef.org/infobycountry/zimbabwe.html [accessed 18 August 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/zimbabwe.htm [accessed 17 January 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Parliamentary investigation into the situation at camps found that
conditions were poor, trainees were subjected to political indoctrination,
and no real vocational training was being provided. Over the past few years, the number of
children living on the streets has continued to rise and there are reports of
children involved in commercial sexual exploitation. Since the beginning of 2004, many
schools have been forced to increase fees to cover the growing cost of
materials and salaries due to inflation. The fee increases reportedly have
led to a rise in dropout rates, affecting girls disproportionately CURRENT
GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - The government’s “Children in Difficult Circumstances”
program is intended to assist street children. The Program and the Basic Education
Assistance Module provide school fees, uniforms and books for children who
cannot afford to attend school. UNICEF
and other international organizations are assisting with the government’s
education efforts and have been particularly involved in school feeding
programs during the recent food crisis.
UNICEF has also been supplying school-in-a-box kits, which provide
basic learning materials, to children attending satellite schools. Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61600.htm [accessed 17 January 2011] CHILDREN - There was no compulsory
education, and schooling was not free. School fees increased dramatically
during the year, and enrollment declined. According to one company's
inflation analysis, school costs for low-income families increased nearly 900
percent from December 2004 through November. Many families could not afford to
send all of their children to school. According to the 2002 census data and
age‑specific population distributions, roughly 72 percent of school‑age
children attended school. In September President Mugabe
claimed that 97 percent of primary school-age children attended school in
2004. The highest level achieved by most students was primary level
education. There were an estimated 1.3
million HIV/AIDS orphans by year's end, and the number was increasing. The
number of AIDs orphans (including children who lost
one as well as both parents) was about 10 percent of the country's
population. Many grandparents were left to care for the young, and, in some
cases, children or adolescents headed families and were forced to work to
survive. AIDS orphans and foster children were at high risk for child abuse.
Some children were forced to turn to prostitution as a means of income.
According to local custom, other family members inherit before children,
leaving many children destitute. Many such children were unable to obtain
birth certificates, which then prevented them from obtaining social services.
During Operation Restore Order,
the government detained many street children and took them to transit camps
or juvenile detention centers. At year's end NGOs were uncertain how the
operation affected the number of children living on the streets, which in
previous years had risen dramatically. Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 7 June 1996 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/crc-Zimbabwe96.htm [accessed 17 January 2011] [17] The Committee is concerned at
the number of orphans and abandoned children as well as at the increase in
child-headed families, inter alia, as a result of
the high incidence of AIDS, at the inadequate measures taken to ensure the
realization of their fundamental rights and at the lack of alternatives to
their institutionalization. Zimbabwean girls seek opportunity in South Africa Donna Bryson, The Associated Press AP, Musina
South www.chicagodefender.com/article-4433-zimbabwean-girls-see.html [accessed 19 August 2011] Sofia Chimhangwa,
a 14-year-old in a denim skirt, lies on the concrete under a filthy blanket.
Her 15-year-old friend sits next to her, braiding a legless Barbie's hair. Musina is "not a good place," Streetchildren Need Families Philani Nyatsanza,
The Herald, 22 April 2009 allafrica.com/stories/200904220293.html [partially accessed 19 August 2011 - access restricted] Sometime back in July 2006,
Government -- exasperated by the number of people resorting to eking out a
living in the streets -- embarked on a programme
whereby they sought to clean up the city centre by rounding up all children
living in the streets. The action seemed to be only a
temporary reprieve, for the streets were soon flooded again, showing that the
concerned parties had applied the wrong method to addressing this question of
children living and working in the streets.
This is typical of what always happens in vicious cycle-fashion:
whenever children are rounded up from the streets by the police, it's only a
temporary measure for they always come back because the streets are probably
the only "accommodating" places they know. They would rather not go back to empty
homes: be they empty of parents, love or food. Uphold Children's Dignity Philani Nyatsanza,
The Herald, allafrica.com/stories/200904080118.html [partially accessed 18 August 2011 - access restricted] It has become common parlance, so
much that we have ignored the consequences of such labels as "street
children" and "Aids orphans".
In simple terms, this is not just naming, but naming and shaming in
the same breathe. The power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs
18:21). Why should a child be made to
pay the price of something over which they had neither power, say, like
losing a parent to an HIV-related illness?
The tragedy is that such shaming has a very high price because,
whether we see it or not, it will always haunt the child, looming over them
like some spectre of evil. Every time you call them
"street children" or "Aids orphans" you are prophesying
into their lives (words are carriers of spiritual power) and at the end of
the day, they act and behave in a manner consistent with what you have labelled them.
So, instead of getting answers to the problem of children making a
"home" in the streets, we exacerbate this socio-economic ill by
condemnation through labelling. "Street children" seems
to have become almost like a trade name, because it is drawn directly from
the disadvantaged children's characteristically grimy lifestyles in the
streets. But whether they live and
work in streets, in families and communities, they are just children. Children flee Justine Gerardy, Agence France-Presse AFP, Musina South mg.co.za/article/2009-01-11-children-flee-zimbabwe-to-uncertain-future [accessed 19 August 2011] Prince Jelom
has sold eggs, carried bags and pushed trolleys to survive life as a
13-year-old on the run from Jelom is one of 100 Zimbabwean children
sleeping in a crowded tin-roofed garage at a Musina
church, set up as a shelter for scores of young Zimbabwean boys found
wandering the streets. Living rough,
often eating from rubbish bins, the street children are casualties of the
worsening crisis at home where deadly cholera has come on the back of chronic
food shortages, mind-boggling inflation and the collapse of hospitals and
schools. One way street – to despair: life for Sokwanele, December 10th, 2007 www.sokwanele.com/articles/zimbabwesstreetkids_10122007 [accessed 18 August 2011] Mandla sleeps under a cardboard box and
survives by scavenging for food from the city’s many overflowing and
evil-smelling rubbish bins. He has only been on the streets for a few weeks
but has learnt quickly, as needs must in this dangerous and disease-ridden
environment. There is no one else to turn to for help. His few surviving
relatives do not even know where he is. On the streets the law of the jungle
operates - literally the survival of the fittest. Frequently it is only rapid
reflexes and a swift pair of feet that keep the inhabitants of this shadowy
world out of really serious trouble. Mandla Mpofu (*) is one of The Herald, allafrica.com/stories/200712030563.html [partially accessed 19 August 2011 - access restricted] Mrs Gambiza-Pasipanodya
said the programme involved urging residents, ratepayers
and private organisations to desist from offering
money or material support to street children and adults as this was a major
factor in influencing their continued stay on the streets. Jotham Dhemba,
The Herald, This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 19 August 2011] THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM - There is rapid growth in the
number of orphaned children in The worsening phenomenon of street
children in urban areas is also symptomatic of a worsening problem and a
malfunctioning child welfare system. It should be evident to all concerned
about the problem of child welfare, that there are many more
"invisible" children who are not accounted for in official
statistics. Tracey C. Velt, REALTOR®
Magazine Online, September 19, 2007 www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2007091908?OpenDocument [accessed 19 August 2011] “When I got there, I heard about
this wonderful woman who would bring the street children tea and bread every
morning,” she says. “I expected this benevolent, shining woman to step out of
the shadows to feed the kids, but she was an old woman living in an apartment
that was about to be condemned, barely able to make ends meet. The children
would climb out of storm drains and ditches to get food from her.” Voice of [accessed 19 August 2011] Police in the Zimbabweean
capital of Food Experts: Time is Ripe to Grow More Bananas in Voice of www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2007-07-30-voa54-66781617.html?CFTOKEN=90141369&CFID=132078934 [accessed 19 August 2011] Munya is a street child who earns money
by guarding cars in the capital. He says he regularly buys bananas from Chiwkama, because he can afford neither chicken nor
chips. Street children's project still to fly Augustine Mukaro, The allafrica.com/stories/200607210148.html [partially accessed 20 September 2011 - access restricted] To date, there are no indications
of any developments relating to a children's home. However, the farm is being
fully utilised. R W Johnson, The Sunday Times, www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1290268.ece [accessed 19 August 2011] Suffer the little children is a
phrase never far from your mind in today’s Under the weight of the general
economic meltdown — the economy has shrunk by 40% since 2000 and is still
contracting — the health system has collapsed and a populace now weakened by
five consecutive years of near-starvation dies of things which would never
have been fatal before. A staggering 42,000 women died in childbirth last
year, for example, compared with fewer than 1,000 a decade ago. Children of the streets feel wrath of Mugabe David Blair, The Telegraph, [accessed 19 August 2011] President Robert Mugabe began a new onslaught on Last year they bulldozed thousands
of "illegal structures" in the poorest townships, leaving 700,000
people without homes or livelihoods. Police The Herald, This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 19 August 2011] Police in Asst Insp
Pamire said people should desist from giving the
street kids and beggars money because they usually buy intoxicating
beverages, thereby inciting violence and eventually disturbing peace as they
harass the public. The number of children living on
the streets is increasing because of the money they get from people. Street Kids Unite to Write Book This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 19 August 2011] The book, entitled The book asks whether street
children are badly behaved, despised and rejected. It also explores whether
they are safe in the streets, they have dreams and hopes, aspirations to
succeed and above all if at all they choose to be in the streets. The 60-page
book chronicles their life and the story is told first hand by the street
children themselves. Plot to dump street kids in youth training camps The Financial Gazette, November 25, 2004 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 19 August 2011] The Harare City Council is
planning to dump more than 7 000 street kids at the controversial national
youth training centres in a sweep likely to be
replicated in other towns and cities. Plans are already at an advanced
stage to forcibly round up beggars and a hardened army of street children,
starting in the capital Street Children Vulnerable to AIDS The International Child and Youth Care Network CYC-NET, 8 July
2004 www.cyc-net.org/features/ft-streetchildren.html [accessed 19 August 2011] Ten-year-old Molin
considers the streets of Increase
In Street Children As Economy Worsens UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=50886 [accessed 19 August 2011] Results from an assessment of
children living and working on the streets in urban areas around the capital,
Bleak
Future For Valentine www.zimbabwesituation.com/jun20a_2004.html#link11 [accessed 19 August 2011] With the economic crisis showing
no signs of a respite, there was little to cheer, particularly for street
children who have to endure cold nights and starvation in the country's major
cities. Government Establishes Fund for Street Children The Herald, allafrica.com/stories/200507051446.html [partially accessed 19 August 2011 - access restricted] Government has established the
Children on the Streets Fund meant to protect and rehabilitate children
living or working on the streets and shall be applied for the removal of
children below the age of 18 from the streets for reunification with their
families or placement in institutions dealing with street children. Zim Online (SA), www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=12093 [accessed 19 August 2011] The Femi Kuti Speaks Out For Zimbabwe’s 1.3 Million Orphans United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, 09 May 2005 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 19 August 2011] Despite the world’s fourth worst
rate of HIV/AIDS, the highest rise in child mortality of any nation, and the
number of street children doubling in the past five years, Zimbabweans
receive just a fraction of donor funding compared to other countries in their
region. Information About Street Children - This report is taken from “A Civil Society Forum for East
and Southern Africa on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Street
Children”, 11- 13 February 2002, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 19 August 2011] Over 30,000 household headed are
headed by children under 21 and another 3,000 are headed by children under
15; 600,000 children under 15 are estimated to have lost their mother;
estimated 12,000 street children of whom about 5,000 are in Harare; numbers
increase during school holidays and weekends when children are sent out by
their parents to supplement the family income or to earn their school fees and
levies. Tanya: It’s Better to Die of AIDS Than Hunger www.newint.org/features/2005/04/01/harare-zimbabwe/ [accessed 17 January 2011] ‘Soon after the death of my father
I was evicted from the house where my parents lodged in Mbare. I went to stay with my grandmother who
lives in Mabvuku.
There were 10 of us children staying there and we had all been left by
deceased relatives. Life was difficult
because, being an old woman, my grandmother had no means of sustaining
herself and all of us at the same time.’ CHILDREN: Those The Anti-AIDS Campaigners Forget Isabella Matambanadzo, Inter
Press Service News Agency IPS, www.aegis.com/news/ips/1996/IP960601.html [accessed 19 August 2011] Generally, the boys do odd jobs
such as guarding parked cars, while the girls beg. But destitution transforms many children of
both sexes into easy prey for people who sexually exploit them in exchange
for a little money, warm clothes, a pair of old shoes or simply a hot meal. Firelight Foundation Firelight Foundation grants.firelightfoundation.org/ [accessed 19 August 2011] [scroll down] SCRIPTURE UNION / CHIEDZA STREET
CHILDREN’S PROGRAM, BULAWAYO 2003 – $5,800 - Scripture Union, a
nondenominational Christian group, has been working with children, youth, and
families in [scroll down] NEHEMIAH PROJECT, BULAWAYO
2003 – $7,000 -
The Nehemiah Project works with children in Sauerstown,
an extremely poor community outside of All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
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Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Street Children - |
Human Trafficking in [Zimbabwe] [other countries]Street Children in [Zimbabwe Child Prostitution in [Zimbabwe] [other countries]