The future of the Zimbabwean child
Recently I have noticed that our primary school children are being turned to enjoy this situation we are in. To them it’s normal and for sure it is. They are just own their own!
Going to school is as good as attending Sunday school at churches with no teachers in class to teach them maths and content lessons or to be ‘treated’ for not having done their homework. The freedom they have is just too much and a challenge to the nation. After school they go home to join their friends on the streets to play money-games (soccer) where these coins are now exchanging hands. They can pick them easily from the dumping sites.
In the evening they join the rest of the family where everyone is just paying attention to the TVs and radios to wait for any announcement of the results of talks.
No one pays attention to them whether they have bathed, done their homework, or how they performed at school. The father will be dozing in a corner after working on a hard rock to make three-quarter stones for sale. On the other side of the room their mother is busy counting some coins and a few of these new notes recently introduced after a busy day playing hide and seek with the policemen for selling her goods ‘illegally’.
So with all this happening in their own homes and the environment they live in our children don’t know what is normal and what isn’t. To some extent they even cherish to become a hwindi (conductor) because they don’t have the proper guidance and education for anything more.
The political situation in Zimbabwe is even making matters worse in every sector. The task is simple as it is complex – to rebuild the country and the future of the Zimbabwean child we need bold steps in rehabilitating education, housing and health. So far I see precious little improvement in any of these areas that inspires confidence or offers peace of mind.