From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Date: 03 Oct 92 08:58 PDT
Subject: ZIMBABWE: STREET CHILDREN HAUNT THE
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700581:000:4243
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Oct  3 08:58:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: ZIMBABWE: STREET CHILDREN HAUNT THE

/* Written 12:39 am  Oct  3, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: ZIMBABWE: STREET CHILDREN HAUNT THE CAPITAL


an inter press service feature

by phillip 'neko

harare, sep 29 (ips) -- nine-year-old alfred jongwe sleeps
restlessly on the sidewalk along one of the busiest streets in
the city centre of this zimbabwean capital.

he is dressed in tattered and dirty clothes. the countless
holes in his shirt makes his lean body vulnerable to the morning
breeze. his body convulses as his 16-year-old friend, john
chiledze, tries to wake him up.

''he is very hungry, that's why he is sleeping and refusing
to wake up. he has not eaten anything since yesterday
afternoon'', chiledze told ips.

''we did not have enough money to buy sadza (a thick porridge)
and the dust bins are empty'', he says as he miserably eyes an
empty drum across the street.

chiledze went to live on the streets when his father was made
redundant. his mother's wages as a maid are not enough to keep
the family on its feet.

''i would like to go to school because i want to be a teacher
when i am grown up. i don't like to live in the streets but
there's not enough food at home to feed us'', he says.

chiledze is one of more than 300 children who now live on the
streets of harare (population about 1.5 million), and survive by
their own wits -- washing, guarding and directing cars to
parking lots, and scavenging. more than half of them are between
six and 18-years old.

harare's mayor, simon chikwavaira, says the city council is
working hard to ensure the ''street children'' do not become a
menace.

''we work hard toward the smooth running of our city. on the
other hand, it's painful, because the poor kids are victims of
circumstances. unfortunately, we have to clear them off the
streets'', chikwavaira told ips.

the problem of ''street kids'', he says, cannot be looked at
in isolation from other economic and social issues. the council
has to work with other community agencies to solve the problem.

experts say the problem has been worsened by the inability
of the zimbabwean economy to create enough jobs in the formal
sector and because of the growing number of refugees from
neighbouring mozambique as a result of the civil war there.
(more/ips)


zimbabwe: street (2)

about two million people are unemployed in zimbabwe. the
country also has to battle with 500,000 jobless school leavers
every year and more than 128,700 mozambicans running from the
17-year civil war in their country.

the current drought, the worst in living memory, and the
government's implementation of the world bank and international
monetary fund (imf)-induced structural adjustment programme
(sap) have combined to make living conditions unbearable.

as part of a campaign to take the children off the streets,
a seminar has been organised for early next month.

during the seminar, government and non-governmental
organisations (ngos) will focus on the protection of the
''street children'' and try to find short and long-term
solutions to the problem.

one short-term solution is to clear the children off the
streets and place them in homes. the police press and public
relations superintendent, luke huni, says this is not his
department's responsibility, although the police sometimes
''help out''.

''it is really the sole responsibility of the (government's)
department of social welfare to ensure the children's welfare is
maintained'', huni told ips.

he points out that after the children have been rounded up,
they are sent back home or to refugee camps since many of them
are mozambican refugees looking for jobs.

the department of social welfare's policy on street children
is to place them in probation and remand homes.

in another effort to help the ''street kids'', a welfare
organisation -- street ahead -- was formed last year to provide
the street children with shelter, food, clothing, care and
education.

where possible the children will be reintegrated into the
family. (end/ips/pn/et/apc/92)