The Sunday News
Kudzai Chikiwa, Features Correspondent
THE 20-year-old Makomborero Dandare had a dream that one day she would don a white uniform and attend to patients in a hospital.
But for the young woman, abandoned by the father of her two children, and resident at Killarney Squatter Camp in Bulawayo, reality is a far cry from that glowing dream.
Her eyes glistening with tears, Dandare told Sunday News: “There is nothing more heart breaking than watching your dream die. I regret living in this cruel world; what does the future hold for me and who will take care of an uneducated woman and her kids?”
Dandare’s despair is echoed by many girls and young women in the camp, a slum settlement opposite Bulawayo’s affluent Killarney suburb.
A snap survey revealed that most of the girls in the camp are not attending school, leaving them at risk of early pregnancy and child marriage.
Investigations found that the squatter camp, which is comprised more than 100 makeshift units, houses a large number of females who should be in primary or secondary school, college, or university, but have been forced to abandon their education due to financial constraints.
Residents have, however, set up a creche under a tree, where a local supervises children who should be attending early childhood development (ECD) classes, as required by Government policy. To keep them occupied, the creche also includes children as old as seven. Zimbabwean schools are required to run two ECD classes for children aged three to five. That means children normally begin Grade One aged six.
“Usually, if everything is okay, at 13, a child is expected to be going to secondary level as a Form One,” said Soneni Dlamini, a parent at Killarney Squatter Camp.
“Our children do not go; the lucky ones go as far Grade Seven, but when it comes to exam time, a lot cannot write the official exam because parents do not have National Identity Cards and children cannot be registered.”
She added: “I believe even the big girls, who are between the ages of 18 and 22, should be at the nearby Nust (National University of Science and Technology), as others of the same age are doing.”
During a visit to the squatter camp, this reporter found only about nine girls who said they were currently in school, with two of them taking vocational courses. But even these lucky few face several challenges in their quest for an education.
Melinda Mpofu, a Form 3 pupil at Mzilikazi, said her father paid her school fees, but she had to board a kombi to town and then walk to school. She said: “My life is at risk. I leave home early and come back late. I walk as the kombis drop me in the suburbs. I wish I had other girls accompanying me.”
Almost in tears, the young girl pointed at a scar on her hand, saying, “I sustained a knife cut when I was defending myself from a man who wanted to rape me on my way from school.”
Other girls said their parents wanted them to obtain an education, but did not have the money to pay their fees.
Olivia Moyo (19) said: “Our parents have no money. Learning up to Grade Seven is something special here. Something that I appreciate my father for.”
Young women interviewed at the Killarney Squatter Camp acknowledged that their lack of educational opportunities left them vulnerable. Dandare said: “This (lack of education) hugely affected my life. Having children at this tender age is not a sign that I am loose, no. I had nothing to occupy me
and since my mother died long back I needed money to support my family. The kids’ father had promised to take care of me and my siblings. I had no choice but to give in.”
According to gender activists, girls who find themselves in Dandare’s situation are at risk of not only early pregnancy, but of also contracting potentially life-threatening sexually transmitted infections such as HIV and the human papilloma virus that is associated with cervical cancer.
“These girls are vulnerable; they spend the whole day at home, doing nothing. Some are raped; many are pregnant at a tender age. I don’t blame them; they have no jobs, what do you expect from them?” said a gender activist only identified as Dlamini.
Ennie Somerai, programme facilitator for Girl Child Empowerment Zimbabwe (GCEZ), a non-governmental organisation, said: “This is a serious situation; empowerment comes through education. The economy, as well as cultures and beliefs, can be a limit to the girl child’s education and they become vulnerable to rape, early childhood marriages and other forms of abuse.”
Somerai’s organisation, which advocates for girl child empowerment, has done some work at Killarney, including providing sanitary wear to girls so that they do not have to miss school during their menstrual periods.
She said, funds permitting, GCEZ would like to help girls at the Killarney camp return to school.
Comments from many of the Killarney girls showed that, if given the opportunity, they are willing to return to school.
Dandare said: “I have a strong feeling that this is not my destiny. I deserve a better life. At school I was not dull, if only I am given another chance, I won’t play around. I don’t regret having these kids, they are my gifts, but I need education to support them. I will be a nurse, it’s never too late.”
-Kudzai Chikiwa is a second year journalism student at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust).
