CRI Journal Issue 4 (2005) There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children. - Nelson Mandela By Margaret Harrison This issue of the CRI journal deals with the crisis occurring in Zimbabwe, and particularly the effects the government’s euphemistically-named ‘urban renewal campaign’ is having on the population; especially its children and young people. The articles and accompanying photos and video clips provide a grim picture of a country becomingly increasingly isolated, and its adults and children more and more helpless, in the face of a combination of drought, widespread AIDS/HIV, corruption and economic mismanagement. President Mugabe's policies have resulted in armed soldiers and police assaulting tens of thousands of its poorest and most vulnerable adults and children, bulldozing their ‘unauthorised’ shanty homes, markets and rural communities, and literally leaving them for dead. An estimated 1 million people have now been rendered homeless; and starving and abandoned children whose family structures have disintegrated are being preyed upon by more powerful adults across the country. Opposition to these policies, (predominantly from members of the Movement for Democratic Change), is aggressively discouraged, and critical journalism is being stifled. The Political Economy of Zimbabwe’s Operation Murambatsivaby Dr David Dorward, The so-called ‘slum clearances or Operation Murambatsiva [‘Drive Out Rubbish’] carried out by an autocratic Zimbabwe regime of President Robert Mugabe, is but the latest in a saga of social, economic and political catastrophes. As in most famines and political pogroms, it is the poor, especially women and children who are the most vulnerable. In this instance it is the urban poor who are being deliberately targeted. Crisis in the State and the Family: Violence Against Women in ZimbabweBy Mary Johnson Osirim Original Source: Osirim, Mary J. "Crisis in the State and the Family: Violence Against Women in Zimbabwe." African Studies Quarterly 7, no.2&3:[online] URL: Since the early 1990's, Zimbabwe has been enmeshed in a major economic crisis that has seriously eroded the status of women in that country. For the past three years, the economic crisis has been joined by a political crisis which marks the first major challenge to the Mugabe regime since independence. In addition to the very harsh toll that the economic and political problems have had on poor and low-income African women in particular, especially those involved in subsistence agriculture and the micro-enterprise sector, black women in Zimbabwe have also experienced an escalation in violence committed against them, by both individuals and the state. Such violence cannot be solely understood as physical abuse, but as a phenomenon that takes on a myriad of forms, including the economic and the psychological. Domestic violence and rape have deeply-rooted structural explanations in Zimbabwe linked to the long history of colonialism and white minority rule, political transition, economic crisis and adjustment, changes in expected gender roles for women and men, and the political crisis that emerged in the last few years. Under such circumstances, many men perceive that their power and position in the broader society, as well as within the home, have come into question and unfortunately, all too many men have directed their anger against women. In the midst of this crisis, though, two non-governmental organizations have attempted to address the issue of violence against women-the Musasa Project and the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Center and Network. Although the limited resources of these NGO's restrict what they can accomplish, they, unlike the state, are path breakers in the empowerment of poor and low-income women. Zimbabwe's unwanted 'foreigners'By Justin Pearce Zimbabwe boys scavenge
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Zimbabwe: Street Children Vulnerable to AIDS
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UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland on Friday painted a grim picture of Zimbabwe's humanitarian situation in the wake of the government's recent slum demolition campaign which has affected hundreds of thousands people.
Egeland said that following a 11.9-million-dollar (10-million-euro) appeal launched by his Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in early July, "we are undertaking a big humanitarian program... and have been able to reach between 100,000 and 200,000 people."
But he said the Harare government was refusing to cooperate with a larger UN program to assist those hardest hit by the eviction campaign, including a longer-term component to resettle affected slum-dwellers.
Click here for more about Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis
Zimbabwe: 300,000 children drop out of schools in crackdown
More than 300 000 children of informal traders and city squatter families in Zimbabwe have dropped out of school in the last four weeks alone after their homes were destroyed by the government, Zim Online has learnt.
Officials at the Ministry of Education head office in Harare said directors of education in the country's 10 provinces were last week asked to compile figures of children under 13 years no longer coming to school because their families were evicted in the government's highly unpopular urban clean-up operation.
"The average figure of pupils no longer attending school because their family has been evicted is 100 per school; and these are just primary school kids. In secondary schools, it appears the effect of the evictions has not been that devastating," said one senior official, who spoke anonymously for fear of victimisation.
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Unicef calls for help to keep Zimbabwean children in school
By Liz Ford
Despite the government's slum clearance programme, which is leaving thousands of families homeless, Zimbabwe's children are still managing to go to school.
Photograph: Courtsey of The Guardian and AP
The Guardian
Friday August 26, 2005
The United Nation's children fund, Unicef, has called on the international community to support efforts to get Zimbabwean pupils back to school in September. Despite the country's unstable domestic situation, school enrolment rates have actually risen over the past five years, and Unicef said it was keen to ensure this trend continued.
Unicef's representative in Zimbabwe, Festo Kavishe, said this week that Zimbabweans were making "great sacrifices" so their children could continue going to school in the face of a declining economy, high unemployment, food shortages and an increasing number of orphans, caused in part by the rise of HIV and Aids cases. Zimbabwe now has the world's fourth highest rate of infection.
Click here for more about UNICEF’s call
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By Sister Patricia Walsh, Zimbabwe
A letter from Sister Walsh in Zimbabwe
This letter is written by Sister Patricia Walsh of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe. Hatcliffe Extension
Click here for Sister Walsh’s letter
Links and Resources
AEGIS: AIDS Education Global System
General information about Zimbabwee as well as links to other sites and information about AIDS and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe AIDS Network (ZAN)
A national network of NGOs, is a non-profit making organisation founded in 1992. ZAN is a membership based organisation of AIDS service organisations, faith based and private organisations
For examples of the information by this website click here.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in the CRI Journal are those of the author's and are included to enhance discussion, they do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Children's Rights International.