adminMidlands Correspondent
MENTALLY challenged children at Mudavanhu Children’s Home in Gweru are allegedly sneaking out of the home owing to inadequate security structures and the biting cold weather, an official has said. In an interview yesterday, the home’s acting headmistress, Mrs Annamore Mukwazhe said the home was recording at least one missing child a day.
She said the children were taking advantage of a heavily vandalised security fence to sneak out.
Mrs Mukwazhe said cases of mentally challenged children who were sneaking out of the home were often on the increase in winter when the children would be running away from bathing using cold water.
“We have a serious problem here at Mudavanhu Children’s Home especially with issues to do with the security fence. We house mentally challenged children. Our biggest problem is our security fence was vandalised and the children are now taking advantage of the situation to sneak out of the home on a daily basis,” she said.
The home, in Mkoba suburb, is the only home for mentally challenged children in the Midlands province.
Mrs Mukwazhe appealed to the corporate world to assist the home, which said was facing a myriad of challenges. “We record cases of children who sneak out of the home especially during winter because the majority of them will be running away from bathing in cold water.
We do not have geysers and the inmates use cold water to bath even when it is cold. At times teachers are forced to abandon their lessons as they run around looking or chasing after the children who would have sneaked out,” she said.
Online Reporter