Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Roselyne Sachiti
4 November 2009
Harare — TEN-YEAR-OLD James (not real name) follows a woman and begs for money to buy medicine to cure a skin rash that is visibly gnawing at his small, dirty body.
The woman tells him that she does not have any money, but he pleads with her to give him only 5 rand.
"I would not have begged for money to buy medicine if my parents were all alive. My parents died of Aids and our relatives do not want to stay with me because I am HIV positive. Please help me," pleads the small boy, who looks much smaller for his age.
The woman finally gives the frail looking boy US$2.
James is one of the hundreds of children who live and work on Harare's streets.
As the country celebrates the decrease in the number of children living on the streets, there is need for the Ministry of Labour and Social Services and other stakeholders to devise measures that permanently remove children from the streets.
An enumeration of children living and working on the streets recently released by non-governmental organisation Streets Ahead in areas that include Harare, Chitungwiza, Norton, Ruwa and Epworth revealed that 705 children were staying on the streets.
The bulk of the children living and working on the streets of Harare and surrounding towns were within the 11 to 15 age group; followed by those in the 16 to 18 age group.
However, there were a significantly higher number of youths aged between 19 and 24 years and a few children within the zero to five age group.
While 488 street children were males, their female counterparts totaled 217. The census revealed that most children were Zimbabweans, followed by Malawian and Mozambican citizens, and were pushed to the streets by various reasons.
Out of 705 interviewed children, a total of 129 street children said they were on the streets for financial needs.
Eighty-five children were on the streets because their parents were both dead, while poverty pushed 36 children to the streets.
The divorce of parents resulted in 11 children staying on the streets while 28 had other family members staying on the streets.
Abused children staying on the streets totaled 41 while those begging were 10. Seven were born on the streets while eight came with other children. Four children thought they would get better prospects in Harare while 26 were vendors.
Work on the farms was not pleasant for three children while another three were chased away from home because of pregnancy. A total of 14 had nowhere to go while 67 were there because of delinquency. Five children were on the streets accompanying a blind parent or a guardian.
While 10 children were on the streets selling wares for their mothers, 12 others stayed there because they could not afford rent. Lack of food drove three children onto the streets; while three got lost.
Five others were on the streets because they needed a job while three were there because they got married?
Another three came from a non-supportive church while 12 others were with a parent. The children said they earned between US$0,50 and US$1,00 per day.
Only one earned US$100 per day.
Of the children who underwent the census, 18 had Mozambican nationality while 32 had Malawian nationality.
A significant number of children did not have birth certificates.
Of the 705 street children, 163 had birth certificates while 173 do not literally exist in the country's records. It was not clear whether 369 children had birth certificates.
"Because birth registration is the official record of a child by the State and a Government's first acknowledgement of a child's existence, it is crucial that all children living and working on the streets are assisted to get birth certificates.
"The situation bedeviling children living and working on the streets of Harare tends to have rendered these children stateless. Most children either had their birth certificates lost, destroyed and had no means of connecting them with their particular families of origin.
"This heightens the need to have responsive legislative frameworks that take cognisance of the plight of children living on the streets and the need to assist them to their right to a nationality and citizenship," said the report.
A common definition of a street child is any child who lives and works on the streets and is below the age of 18. Their day to day life is influenced by the streets. A street child can be a child who comes to the streets during the day to earn a living and goes home by night or one whose home is on the street.
Street children exist in many major cities especially in developing countries and may be the subject of abuse, neglect and exploitation. Generally, 70 percent more of the street children are boys.
The survey revealed that a significant number of children working on the streets did not have birth certificates.
From the census, more boys than girls were currently at school and once attended school.
"This is an area of concern for ensuring education for all. These results testify to the acid test in the implementation of Millenium Development Goals and their accomplishment by 2015," read the report.
Minister of Labour and Social Services , Mrs Paurina Mpariwa said her ministry through the Department of Social Services, has the mandate for the care and protection of all children as provided for under the Children's Act (Chapter 5:06).
She said in 2006 Government adopted a strategy which requires the setting up of ministerial task forces at national, provincial and district levels to address issues affecting street children.
"Government has also put in place the Street Children Fund, which aims to facilitate access to financial resources for any stakeholder involved in the rehabilitation, reunification and re-integration of children from the street back to the community.
"Also, where child protection is concerned, Government realises it cannot work alone. As such under the tripartite framework with the United Nations Childrens Fund (Unicef) and civic organisations, it has been implementing the National Action Plan for Orphans and Vulnerable Children," she said.
The Minister said under the programme, the aspect of street children is addressed on Objective 7 which focuses on children living outside the family environment.
Ms Mpariwa said while it is important to recognise that reasons for children living or working on the streets vary, the underlying cause is often insufficient care at home, mainly due to orphanhood caused by HIV and Aids, poverty, or abandonment by parents or guardians.
She said a hostile or abusive environment can force children to the streets, but sometimes it is just pure mischief and an adventurous mind that leads children to the streets.
"As mentioned earlier, Government and registered Private Voluntary Organisations are working together in trying to rehabilitate, reunify and possibly give a bright future to a child who has lived on the streets.
"It is however, critical that stakeholders have the correct statistics on the numbers of children actually on the streets.
"We require a national profile which separates those children who spend the day working on the streets and returning home at night, from those children who have nowhere to turn to and actually live on the streets.
"This is important in that the latter are most in danger as they are prone to sexual abuse especially at night when they are exposed and hence vulnerable," she added.
Ms Mpariwa said targeting programming by stakeholders can only be most effective once the condition and numbers of children living and or working on the streets has been established.
"In this regard, the census done by Streets Ahead comes at the most opportune time when most stakeholders are planning for programmes to rehabilitate children from the dangerous environment of the street.
"The children need secure protection within their families or in favourable alternative placement options such as foster care and institutionalisation as guided by our National Orphan Care Policy," she added.
She called on society to nip in the bud the problems in communities that make children feel they are better off in the streets than at home.
"Community conscientisation and availing of resources to the correct beneficiaries may lead to less children being on the streets.
"Also participation of children themselves in the programmes meant for them will mostly likely result in success as they will co-operatively work towards their rehabilitation," she added.
There is also need to create a fund that looks into the welfare of children living under difficult circumstances.
"This can be done in form of a monthly grant, which the child can use to buy food and pay school fees.
"Grants to cushion elderly who usually take care of the orphans should be set up so that they do not push the children to beg on the streets," said Mr Admire Phiri of Waterfalls.
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