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Thandeaka Moyo
ROSE Moyo’s face communicates volumes of misery, hunger and ill-health she has endured for the past 87 years. Her five children died “mysteriously” and left four children under her care.Due to old age, coupled with high blood pressure, diabetes and chest ailments, she can barely walk and struggles to get out of her house – a dilapidated structure made of pieces of steel and shattered windows.

This is the third day in a row that she has to eat boiled chaumolier for nourishment but healthcare, food and shelter are the least of her worries. What does the future hold for her four grandchildren who are struggling attain primary school education? She wonders.

“There is nothing I now live for but to die and forget about the painful years I have had on this earth. I have spent days without eating anything but I wish to die knowing that these children have a bright future attainable only through education,” says the octogenarian from Plumtree.

She did not only lose her husband, but all her front teeth as well which makes her speech difficult to understand.

“One of these children, a 12-year-old girl is the only one going to school, doing Grade Five. Her brother left school three years ago and I don’t know what will eventually happen to him,” she says as she wipes the perspiration forming in her dark eyes.

Moyo believes her grandchildren should be benefitting from programmes like the government-run Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) but to her surprise, her grandchildren somehow do not qualify for assistance.

“I continuously have to brave up and walk 4km to my granddaughter’s school to beg her teachers not to turn her back for non-payment of fees. If there was a way, I would look for employment and work for these children as it pains me to see them sit hopelessly here at home with no food, clothes and access to education.”

A local pastor from the area says most of the orphans in Plumtree do not go to school as they are not benefitting from Beam or any other programme to help them access at least basic education.

“I have been staying here for the past five years and have noted that most children, especially the orphans are not going to school. Some are not orphans but are vulnerable in that their parents are so poor and bed-ridden they cannot afford to feed them,” he says.

He adds that the Beam selection committees in the area have robbed vulnerable children of their bright future.

“I think the government must be fully responsible for these children’s access to healthcare, food, shelter and education. However, members of the selection committee are to be blamed for the hundreds of orphans from Plumtree who have never gone to school,” he says.

With only a few months left before the Millennium Development Goals deadline, Zimbabwe faces a mammoth task of ensuring that every child accesses basic primary education.

About 80km from Moyo, sits one Patricia Tshabalala, a child activist who turned her 4-roomed house into an orphanage which assists the growing number of orphans especially girls in Bulawayo’s western suburbs.

“I have lost hope in Beam because many of its beneficiaries are children or relatives of the selection committee members who favour them at the expense of orphans. Most girls who are forced to drop out of school due to lack of funds later become more vulnerable to sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and contribute to gender inequality in Zimbabwe,” says Tshabalala who on various occasions has been detained for advocating for children’s rights.

She is a founder of Vulindlela, an organisation that helps children aged 4 to 18 years to access education.

“I had to accommodate some of these children in my house because it seems available funds are not adequate to cater for the growing number of orphans. However, I appeal to the government to descend on the Beam selection committees and thoroughly investigate the corruption taking place there,” she says.

Charity Hlabangani, a community volunteer for Kopa Village in Inyathi, Matabeleland North says out of the 20 orphans in need of help in her village, only 5 made it to the beneficiary list of Beam.

“Hundreds of orphans do not go to school in this village and it is only now that a handful has started benefiting from Beam. What worsens the situation is that most of them stay with very old guardians who cannot even fend for themselves,” says Hlabangani.

According to the 2013 Zimbabwe Child Rights Situation Analysis, the country has an estimated 1,6 million orphans. Section 27 of the Zimbabwe Constitution declares that the State “must take all practical measures to promote free and compulsory basic education for children; and higher and tertiary education”.

Zimbabwe is also a signatory of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations’ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international instruments which obligate the country to ensure orphans have access to education, healthcare, food and shelter.

Though the country boasts of a “94,4 percent” literacy rate, according to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the vulnerable are failing to access basic education due to lack of resources.

Justice for Children programmes director Caleb Mutandwa says there is poor targeting of beneficiaries of government initiatives which help orphans.

“Those who truly deserve help are not receiving it and though the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare has put up measures to address the phenomenon, the Ministry is yet to address challenges faced by Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs),” he says.

Mutandwa adds that Beam fund is limited and currently some schools, for example in Hwange district have reported that they have not received any money from it.

“Selection for children to be put on Beam is done at community level and so some teachers forward the names of their relations rather than the deserving orphans and the vulnerable children.”

A Zimta pilot survey conducted in Plumtree noted that selection of beneficiaries was cumbersome and prone to manipulation. The administration of the programme was perceived as not transparent in some schools. Of the 15,243 potential beneficiaries in the participating schools’ registers, only 8,533 (56 percent) were receiving Beam assistance as a result of inadequate funds.

Faced with a large number of potential beneficiaries versus limited resources, there were issues of non-coverage of people in need and issues raised on funds allocated to those who did receive. About a third (38,1percent) of community elders interviewed observed that schools did not display a list of the Beam beneficiaries on the public notice board. Principal Director in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare principal Sydney Mhishi earlier on this year said the ministry requested $73 million for Beam but was allocated only $15 million for 2014.

He said it was impossible under the 2014 budget to provide free basic education.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced the country’s 2015 budget recently and allocated $890,137,000 towards primary and secondary education.

However more than three quarters of the allocation will go towards payment of payment bills. So far it has not been established how much was allocated Beam for 2015.

Not all hope is lost for the OVC as there are some people who have dedicated their lives to bringing hope to the helpless and desperate children in their communities.

Tambudzai Dube, a widow living with HIV, shares her food with six child-headed families from Emganwini.

“I volunteered to help orphans when I discovered my HIV status 10 years ago. There are hundreds of children in Emganwini, Nkulumane, Rangemore and Nketa who are in desperate need of education, food and shelter,” she says.

“I walk from one suburb to the other trying to beg teachers to help these children benefit from Beam.”

Dube adds that one reality is that some intelligent children had to drop off school at Form Three because of lack of funds.

“In registers which I keep, I have details of an orphan who stays in a squatter camp with his old grandparents. He was performing well at school but was forced drop out just before Form Four and now he is just seated at home,” she says.

To Dube, not only do orphans need funds to access education but many are HIV positive with no food to complement the free antiretroviral medication available in local health institutions.

“I only survive on $90 that I sometimes get from NSSA maybe thrice a year and I use this money to buy food for my four school going children and many others in the community who are languishing in poverty,” she says.

Plan International Zimbabwe communications manager Angela Machonesa said though it was the duty of everyone help orphans, it is the sole duty of the government to ensure all vulnerable children access education.

“We are trying our best as an organisation to promote children’s rights especially their access to education. It will take a multi stakeholder approach to end all the suffering faced by the vulnerable children and I think it’s time our government established a child-friendly budget that speaks to the needs and demands of these orphans,” said Machonesa.

She urged communities to actively participate in educating orphans and to cultivate a sponsorship programmes to help the needy.

“We encourage communities to use readily available resources and come up with ways to educate their orphans. We have launched a ‘Promoting Rights and Accountabilities in Communities’ programmes where we encourage everyone to be concerned about vulnerable children in their village or neighbourhood and work towards improving their livelihoods.”

The late iconic African leader Nelson Mandela once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. Educate a child and transform the nation.”

No comment could be obtained from the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social which is responsible for Beam.