Orphans in dilemma

Muchaneta Chimuka Herald Features Correspondent
SEVERAL children who are weaned from children’s homes after reaching majority age face various livelihood challenges as they battle to find alternative support post orphanages.
Challenges faced by these children include catering for their basic needs such as food, shelter and healthcare.

Many of them also fall prey to physical and emotional abuse.

After turning 18, Sipho Mlambo, who was weaned from a local children’s home, found herself with no choice but to go into the streets as none of her relatives could be located.
“I survive on begging, but in most cases we sleep on empty stomach. Life has never been rosy here,” she said.

On the streets the girl faces all forms of abuse which are never reported.

After some time on the streets, Sipho, who has taken to smoking marijuana, was gang raped by her peers at their Mukuvisi base resulting in her getting infected with an STI. She did not seek medical care due to financial constrains.

“On that day I was busy smoking marijuana when my male colleagues came and gang raped me. I later found out that I was pregnant and miscarried during the second month maybe because of the infection that I acquired during the process,” she said.

Sipho often reminisces about life back at the children’s home, where they were provided with decent accommodation, food, security which protected her against abuse.

“I think the Government should do something to support children who are leaving those homes by providing temporary shelter and some means of employment so that we do not find ourselves in such situations,” she lamented.

Sipho’s plight is not unique. Another teenager, Maria Bhunu (19) says she has resorted to exchanging sex for food and other basic needs in order to cope with life on the streets.

“I have no other means of survival so I decided to sell my body. At times I suffer from sexually transmitted infections. At the children’s home we used to enjoy life because everything was provided for,” she said.

Some boys who have since returned to the streets said they are often sodomized by people who offered them food during the night and at times hired for sex by some sugar mummies in exchange for various gifts for survival.

The plight of Sipho, Maria and others like them has not gone unnoticed. Gospel musician Gloria Chipo Dande, who was also weaned from Save Our Souls Children’s Home (SOS) and therefore knows firsthand inherent challenges in transitioning, is determined to make a difference by helping other children who live in orphanages.

“I know something needs to be done to change their lives so I’m training them how to sing and use instruments so that they can identify their talents before they are weaned from orphanages. Our core duties are to rehabilitate and empower them,” she said.

Kelvin Lloyd, who was dumped on the street corridors of Harare by his mother soon after birth and later picked up by well-wishers who took him to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals for medication, had this story to tell:

“I was attended to by two doctors namely Kursch from German and Lloyd Mamvura who then decided to join names to form mine. That is how Kelvin Lloyd came about since there was no one to give me a name for me to be enrolled into the Social Welfare Service. Most people who hear my name might think that I am white yet I am a black person,” he said.

He was later taken to Chinyaradzo Children’s Home before being transferred to SOS Children’s Village in Bindura and Waterfalls and is now heading an organization that assists other vulnerable children.

Pastor Richard Rungano, who was also weaned from SOS Children’s Village at the age of 18, said he offers free counseling services to these children.

The Director for Harare Children’s Home, Mrs Maria Sithole said it was the policy that was enacted by the Ministry of Social Welfare that children be weaned when they reached majority age.

“These children are enrolled into our institution through the Ministry of Social Welfare and when they reach 18 years of age they are supposed to leave to open room for others who would be coming. We try by all means to make sure that they get reunited with their families or find jobs but at times our efforts are hampered by socio-economic challenges and we find these children having problems out there,” she said.

She added that most children’s homes are facing various challenges such as funding.

They are also in dire need of food, clothing and dippers among others.

“Most children who come here would have been separated from their parents at a tender age due to different reasons such as being victims of domestic violence, imprisonment of parents, parents being mentally ill or alcoholics, andchild abuse. Only a few manage to proceed with education up to university level after getting sponsorship from local companies,” she said.

In 2011, the Government launched the Second Phase of the National Action Plan (NAP) for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Zimbabwe which aimed at strengthening families in order to ensure love, protection and identification of children.

The NAP 11 envisions that by 2020, all children in Zimbabwe will live in a safe, secure and supportive environment that is conducive to a child’s growth and development.