SAVE THESE CHILDREN: The plight of Zimbabwean children crossing illegally into Mozambique

by Mbonisi Zikhali (Staff Writer)

As we move on from the recently observed Day of the African Child (June 16th, 2006), I thought I should write a piece to highlight the continuing plight of the children of Zimbabwe. As a report from Save the Children UK put it, Zimbabwean children have a keen and persistent sense of responsibility to help their families in any way they can at a time when it is difficult for them to find ways of affording and accessing food in the country”.

Save The Children UK (SC) conducted a preliminary study published on 24 May 2006, outlining the risks and vulnerabilities facing Zimbabwean children who cross illegally into Mozambique. The research was carried out mainly in the towns of Chimoio and Manica Province in central Mozambique, with the administrative posts of Inchope and Machipanda also targeted for the research. The findings reflect that not only are the children exposed to neglect, abuse and exploitation, but they are also in danger of contracting the HIV virus.

The research was conducted with a view of encouraging interventions in the area of protection, care and support, plus promoting crucial national and regional networking to ensure the protection and nourishment of Zimbabwean children in Mozambique. Due to the harsh economic environment in Zimbabwe, children living close to the Mozambican border are propelled to cross into that country illegally for employment opportunities, to improve their economic security and that of their families. HIV and AIDS and other diseases have orphaned some of them. This leaves them little or no means of support, forcing them to seek opportunities outside Zimbabwe.

However, due to their illegal status, they are not protected by Mozambique’s labour legislation and thus are at risk of labour exploitation. The lack of recognized identities such as birth certificates or passports makes them subject to abuse by potential employers, who see an opportunity for cheap labour. Some of the jobs taken up by these children include jobs in agriculture, construction, drinking establishments (barracas), domestic work and selling livestock. They are paid less than their Mozambican peers while girls, as young as twelve, are turning to prostitution as a means of survival.

Some of the jobs they do are dangerous and some children are killed as a result. Without formal identity particulars, it is a mammoth task to repatriate them to Zimbabwe. For example, the report states that the children also illegally pan for gold along the border in Mozambique. In March 2006, about 30 illegal gold panners are said to have been killed by heavy rains and landslides. Although SC UK could not determine whether children were among the casualties, the fact that the children find themselves in such risky circumstances calls for intervention.

Zimbabwean children as young as twelve years of age, are said to be providing sex services for small amounts of money to truck drivers and motorists. Local NGOs working in these areas confirm that numbers of child prostitutes are on the increase. The child prostitutes are subject to physical abuse from Mozambican sex workers who object to the low prices charged by their younger counterparts, saying it puts them out of business. The Mozambican authorities have taken steps to introduce day hospitals and preliminary treatment for HIV and AIDS and are also disseminating information about the dangers of engaging in such work.

The limited access to social services such as health care and education due to the illegal immigration status of these children worsens their plight in terms of seeking treatment, approaching voluntary counseling centers or registering themselves at schools to escape their high-risk occupations. Even if they were could enroll in some schools, which are often full to capacity with Mozambican students, the fact that tutorship is in Portuguese discourages them from attending. The report goes on to point out that the national and Manica provincial governments do not probe seriously into the cases of illegal border jumpers from Zimbabwe as they recognize that Zimbabwe is in a crisis and hence illegal border crossing is inevitable. It is also difficult to differentiate between Zimbabwean and Mozambican children, other than by the inability of Zimbabwean children to communicate in Portuguese.

Save the Children hoped that the research would stimulate dialogue on child migration and trafficking issues in both Zimbabwe and Mozambique and other countries in the region. The hope is that this will help identify possible intervention gaps in the provision of services, such as child reception centres along the various borders. Both the Zimbabwean and Mozambican government, plus civil society partners must probe into the situations facing these children in Mozambique, so as to improve their well-fare in that country. Child labour also should be discouraged and if children are employed, it should be in work that is not manually strenuous and that does not require that they work for long hours, or at night where they could be forced into commercial sex work.

The report also suggested that influential advocacy organisations should bring the problems facing the Zimbabwean children to the attention of the Mozambican government and other local organisations working with orphans and vulnerable children, so that the risks and vulnerabilities of these children are addressed and necessary interventions spearheaded. For example, the Southern African Network on Preventing Child abuse could intervene at national level to rally the Mozambican government and relevant support organisations to address the situation. If this is not done, more and more Zimbabwean children will cross the border and even more will continue to carry burdens too heavy for their feeble shoulders.

SOURCE: To read or download the whole document, click on the following link:

Save The Children, UK
Document Title: Vulnerable Visitors from Zimbabwe
Date Published: 24 May 2006

For more information on this issue, please contact:
Juliao Novela, Child Protection Advisor or Chris McIvor, Programme Director
Save the Children UK – Mozambique
Tel: 258 21 498762/3 or 823183230
Email: childprotection@teledata.mz or pdirector@scfuk.org.mz

Is prevention more sustainable than treatment, in developing countries?

by Mbonisi Zikhali (Staff Writer)

There is an old saying, which goes, Prevention is better than to cure. Indeed, to be able to prevent harm insures you against the burden of nursing injury. If we were to craftily apply this assertion in the sub-Saharan African context in relation to the inestimable wounds that communities have suffered from HIV and AIDS, the saying would provoke a broader debate between public health experts, policy makers and governments on whether prevention strategies alone are better than treatment or than the complimentary use of prevention and treatment strategies.

Sub Saharan Africa remains the epicenter of the epidemic, with 60% of the people in a region that makes up about 10% of the world’s population, living with HIV. The UNAIDS AIDS Epidemic Update (December 2005) stated that in 2005 an estimated 3.2 million people in the region were newly infected, while 2,4 million adults and children died of AIDS (1). Despite notable advances such as the decreasing costs of treatment and the emergence of simpler treatment regimes, access to these treatments has remained out of reach of the large number of people who need antiretroviral therapy. This has led some expects to conclude that prevention strategies are more cost effective in poor countries and should therefore be prioritized over treatment.

The lack of resources is the largest drawback to initiating sustainable antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa. Some governments cite the inadequacy of global AIDS funding as the main cause. However, the other chief reason is that governments in developing countries often find themselves in a crisis when faced with the task of managing annual national budgets. Some Southern African countries such as Zimbabwe are debt ridden, with both internal and external creditors. These and other obligations culminate in uneven budget allocation and distribution of resources, resulting in weak health care systems. Moreover, HIV and AIDS are not the only health concerns.

Gender Links, an organization in Zimbabwe, working on the promotion of gender equality in the media, carried out a regional HIV and AIDS Gender Baseline Study in 2005 as part of an ongoing Media Action Plan (MAP) on HIV/AIDS and Gender, led by the Southern African Editors Forum. The study revealed that media coverage of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the region concentrated more on prevention (Gender Links and Media Monitoring Project, 2006), as compared to treatment. Countries such as Malawi, Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique went beyond the regional average for prevention coverage, which was 41%. They recorded 58%, 47%, 52% and 54% respectively.

In Zimbabwe, treatment received 13% coverage compared to 36% on prevention. The Zimbabwean report states that prevention and care featured prominently because of the media’s preoccupation with the country’s ailing health system, subsequently shifting attention to the transfer of the burden of care to communities and families. In Malawi, 58% of all coverage is said to focus on prevention. Treatment was said to account for 9% of the coverage. The media usually reflects the status quo and as such these results could be said to be testimony of the region’s perceptions on prevention and treatment initiatives. This has been punctuated further by a declaration made by African leaders, proclaiming 2006 as the ‘Year of the Scaling Up of Prevention in the African region’.

According to a WHO/AFRO Press Release (2), the launch on 11 April 2006 in Ethiopia Addis Ababa was prompted by the fact that despite all efforts to combat the epidemic, 3.2 million new infections were recorded in 2005. It went on to say that from the UNAIDS’ and the World Health Organisation’s points of view ‘comprehensive and interlinked prevention activities’ could avert 63% of new infections expected to occur by 2010. At the Zimbabwean country-launch of the same initiative, the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Samuel Parirenyatwa reiterated that his three strategies against HIV and AIDS were ‘Prevention, Prevention and Prevention’.

Yet some argue (among them groups that represent people living with HIV and AIDS) that this over emphasis on treatment is not as strategic as it is believed to be. Interventions biased towards prevention only are seen as neglecting the core values of a broad response to HIV and AIDS. Despite the inadequacy of global funds, there is still the need for governments to go out of their way to make provisions for the supply of antiretroviral drugs to those who need them, not only as a moral motion but also as a constitutional obligation, to the populations’ well being. Governments should not be seen as neglecting the needs of those already infected in favour of preventing new infections. People living with HIV and AIDS still want as long a life as anybody else.

However, at the launch of the ‘Year of the Scaling Up of Prevention in the African region‘ initiative, the WHO Regional Director, Luis Sambo also acknowledged the interdependence of prevention, treatment and care, as prevention of transmission could not be divorced from components such as the prevention of parent-to-child transmission, plus the strengthening of health care systems. Since HIV and AIDS have a bearing on the social and economic well being of African nations, undermining prevention interventions will result in such disastrous outcomes such as the collapse of critical industries due to an ailing workforce.

The health system itself will suffer considering that there are a multitude of health-sector personnel living with the disease. If they are neglected, governments risk incurring extra costs from training new replacement personnel and orientating them on how to administer care to people living with HIV and AIDS. As Alexander Irwin, Joyce Millen and Dorothy Fallows put it in an except entitled ‘Global AIDS: Myths and Facts (Consortium Books, 2003) ’, prevention of HIV and treatment of those suffering from the disease should not be seen as mutually exclusive, but as mutually reinforcing, complimentary arms of a comprehensive global AIDS strategy.

Sources:

1. UNAIDS Global AIDS Report, 2005. (www.unaids.org)
2. WHO/AFRO Press Release.
(www.afro.who.int/press/2006/pr20060412.html)
3. Irwin et al. 2003. Global AIDS: Myths and Facts: tools for Fighting the AIDS Pandemic. Consortium Books, Sales & Distribution

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