My Right to Play!

Belinda Magarira  Citizen Child, Chitungwiza —
Playing is a critical aspect in a child’s life and the right to play is continuously compromised. According to the UNCRC Article 31, every child has the right to leisure and rest, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child.

Taking a close look at the Chitungwiza Community particularly Unit D, the right to play is violated as a result of a combination of factors. Speaking to Nkululeko, a young boy aged eight from Unit D, he strongly emphasized his interest and love for soccer, sadly mentioning the challenges hindering him to play soccer in a safe environment.

Nkululeko sadly lamented that in order to play soccer together with his friends they have to travel all the way to some open places in some faraway field area. He also continued to mention that some older youths use the same field of play and they don’t give them the opportunity to play.

This calls for one to question: is there recognition of the children’s right to play in our society? With a smile on his face, Nkululeko then mentioned how they have managed to deal with such challenges.

“We play in the roads and rarely do we see anyone stopping us. What only disturbs us is having to stop when cars are passing,” said the 8-year-old Nkululeko.

Playing soccer on the streets is now a norm in the society despite the dangers it poses to children.  Consulting Munyaradzi, aged 13, he again mentioned that he is not allowed to play in their yard hence he ends up without a place to play. Munya only plays in the absence of his parents.

“The only time l can play and practice my sporting discipline is when I am at school, and we only play during the ball games seasons.

“We do have the community tennis court but I find no reason to go there for I’m not interested in tennis but volleyball. Only if they put facilities for volleyball will I have the reason to go there.” Munya lamented.

There is so much open space in our communities and if only the responsible authorities could allocate and build facilities at safe play areas for children it would be great. Most of the open spaces are being used as residential stands.

Not only boys are affected with this issue of play, even the girls are also at risk as they travel to look for open places to play. According to Evans Marange, aged 18, who just completed his A level exams at Seke 1 High, he said “playing is a very essential issue in any child’s social wellbeing and must never be taken for granted.”

Questioning Evans on the importance of play, he gave many facts which include children connecting with others, learning new ideas as they interact, sense of belonging, boosting of confidence as well as having a sense of competition.

To him deprivation of this right greatly affects the social life of children in many detrimental ways. He went on to say that his right to play has been violated for too long.

“There used to be play grounds. So many football grounds such that you would be confused on which one to play at but now it’s all history. Some people are not talented academically but are exceptional in sporting activities. Great sport talents is being wasted day in day out,” he said.

The responsible authorities are taking children and play as a luxury not knowing that it is their right to do so. Another thing is the concept of parental and guardians’ ignorance on these rights.

Traditionally some of our parents today grew up without the rights we have and that is mainly the root cause of child rights violations.

“We still have a long way to go in order for children’s rights to be fully recognized, enforced and respected especially the right to play,” said Evans.

laying is fundamental for children and in an effort to transform their lives there is need for recognition of children’s right to play. More needs to be done in Unit D area pertaining children’s right to play and this really calls for action.

We are never going to be silent until all children in our society can play in a safe environment without any obstacle!

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