Hunger and disease kill school children in remote Zimbabwe

Having grown up in a crude environment in Zimbabwe witnessing child abuse and negligence there are tell tale signs that are still haunting me this time the number of children going hungry in Zimbabwean schools and other remote parts of the country. It is outright abuse and against any humanitarian laws that children die of hunger in a country of their birth right but skewed policies, mismanaged economy and corruption are depriving children of their lively hoods.

Children in Zimbabwe continue to be abused as was in my days when I grew up. The extent to which health personnel and other child care workers are able to detect signs of physical or other abuse such as the deprivation of food and medical care is not clear in Zimbabwe hence the large numbers of children dying early.

In the absence of reporting and recording system estimates of physical and other forms of abuse are not readily available, though it is probable that there is rampant abuse from reports of dedicated educators and other responsible citizens that children are dying on a daily basis as a result of government's mismanagement of the economy.

Hunger and disease is affecting thousands of school going children. Some have already succumbed to malnutrition as schools have dropped the supplementary feeding programme citing spiraling prices of basic commodities and lack of commitment by the military government to pursue the programme.

The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare officials in all the remote Provinces of Wanezi block resettlement Area in Mwenezi District Sango Ward, Gezani Ward in Chiredzi District in Masvingo bordering Mozambique, Manyovhe Ward in Molaward B in Kariba and Serero Ward B in Kariba Rural District and other remote districts Matabeleland North and South, Mashonaland East, Mashonalalnd Central Manicaland Province areas such as Zinyemba in Mutasa Peplowo School in Odzi, and Midlands Gokwe North have reported a sharp rise in cases of malnutrition and pellagra diseases caused by acute shortage of food. The function of malnutrition and under-nutrition in stunting, retarded physical and mental development in children is well now established, it is also associated with diarrhoea and measles.

Officials from the Health Ministry and some NGOs working in remote Zimbabwe said hunger and measles deaths continue to claim lives of some children in remote and in pockets of  ‘MDCA political targeted areas' Some children are reportedly fainting in class as a result of hunger. Parents are unable to feed their children as the cost of basic commodities is now beyond the reach of most parents who are now sending their children to school on empty stomachs.

Some schools in the Mazvihwa area of Zvishavane have reportedly dropped out of school as a result of hunger. The opposition MDCA last week condemned the Emmerson Mnangagwa government of being insensitive to the plight and asked him to resign. Pressure has also been mounting from some quarters of the diplomatic community and African leaders for Mnangagwa who seized power from Robert Mugabe in November 2017 to step down as he has failed to move the country forward.

The military government initiated a schools feeding programmein both rural and urban areas to cushion children from hunger but corruption unfair distribution of the staple maize saw some schools failing to access the free food especially those schools in opposition strongholds.

Compounding the situation is the incessant droughts that have been experienced in the country as some house holds did not harvest enough grain to sustain themselves until the next cropping season.

Although Mnangagwa continues to put on a brave face signs are clear that Zimbabweans are now fed up with his leadership and have been demonstrating against him on almost a daily basis. However Mnangagwa has been retaliating by purging opposition leaders, civil society and other activists by unleashing his soldiers and other security agents to beat them up and arresting as well as abducting them in order to silence them.

Margret Mclean a United Kingdom based political analyst said the signs are clear that the military government has failed the people of Zimbabwe.

"The signs are clear Zimbabwe is in a mess, all the reforms that the government is trying to do are failing, people are restless and afraid, the honorable thing to do now is to give up power," she said.

Mclean fled Zimbabwe when her only grandfather's farm was invaded by war veterans during the highly critiscised chaoticLand Reform Programme that was initiated by former president Robert Mugabe which crippled the once vibrant and lucrative agricultural sector that was run by Zimbabwean white farmers.

How many more children could die or skip school as a result of the bad policies and corruption. The suffering of Zimbabwean children remains as part of what we seem to have inherited.

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Makho Precious, I write my personal opinions as a free spirit standing for human rights and space in society