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Crystabel Chikayi, Features Reporter
Poverty has seen widows and their children in Woodville, Bulawayo, directing themselves to Matika fowl runs.

Bare-footed they disperse all over the plots looking for piece jobs. They hope to be lucky to get enough to feed their big families for the day. One can mistake their feet for a white-paged mathematics book. Lips dry and flaky, its clear they last had a decent meal a long time ago. Only their faces report they are young, but the hunger has torn and advanced them to grannies.

Death invaded the widows’ homes leaving them stranded. They once had lavish lives in the cities before fortunes turned for the worse.

Ms Nontokozo Nkomo, the widows’ spokesperson, said poverty had raptured them like a whirlwind from the city to the fowl runs.

“Most of us here lived in suburbs. When our husbands died, we were left with nothing. That is when poverty became our next of kin. Some came from the rural areas in search of better pastures but it just got worse. We came to Matika plot looking for accommodation and the only affordable accommodation we found was the fowl run. The landlord divided the blocks into small rooms and had us rent the rooms at $30 per month,” said Ms Nkomo.

She equated the fowl runs to a roofless house as their roofs have leaking holes.

Ms Nkomo said their situation was forcing them to be packed in large numbers, all in one room. She said some have eight children all in one room.

The mother stays with her male and female children all under one roof.

“We have a grown male child who is 18 years old. He cannot stay in one room with his mother any more so he sleeps in a room that was formerly a bathroom. Life is not easy for us,” said Ms Nkomo.

She said they are living under a great risk since the asbestos sheets are shaky and they can be blown away by the wind anytime. Ms Nkomo said they make the roof firm by placing stones on top of the roofs.

She said: “We sell acacia (umtshatshatsha/ mpangara seeds), farmers buy it for their cattle. One 90kg sack costs a dollar. We go to the bush to collect mtshatshatsha, one can spend the whole day gathering it only to earn a dollar.”

Ms Nkomo said they move from plot to plot in woodville washing clothes of the landlords and they are given $5  at most for the services they offer.

She said the money is not enough to buy food for their families let alone for rentals.

The widows’ children are dusty; they sit next to their mothers looking very sad.

Ms Nkomo said: “Life is hard for our children too. If we don’t get any piece jobs it means they will have nothing to eat. We can go for three days without eating anything. Children fail to go to school because they will be hungry. Even if they go to school, they’re always sent back home as they won’t have paid their fees,”

She says the children go to school without uniforms and their clothes are usually dirty as they are washed without soap. She said at times the children fail to attend lessons at school as they will be hunting for birds in the forest.

Ms Nkomo said: “The children go hunting for birds instead of going to school because they cannot go to school on empty stomachs. The school is about four kilometres away and some of the kids are too young to make it all day on empty stomachs.

“We are indebted to Woodville Primary school where our children learn.

“Our children just do their education up to grade seven. There is no secondary school in Woodville. The nearest is a private one, Eastview High at Mahatshula, but we cannot afford the fees at $600 a term. Northlea High School is three hours walk away but the school fees are also a challenge to us. So, after grade seven our children become school leavers,” said Ms Nkomo.

Another widow who also stays in the fowl run, Ms Bongani Moyo, said they had no running water nearby so they use rusty borehole water.

“We use borehole water. The borehole is rusty and the water has red particles in it. Children always suffer from running stomach because of the filthy water. I wish we could get clean water somewhere but neighbours always say we should get water where we are paying rent. Our landlord locks his gate so we don’t fetch tap water from his house,” said Ms Moyo

Woodville has no clinic; the sick go to town while others go to one in North End.

Ms Moyo said when the children suffer from running stomach they just make salt and sugar solutions. She says they hardly have money to take the children to hospital and on foot the journey to North End is a three-hour journey.

“If you decide to walk to North End that will take six hours to and fro or even more if you bring children along. When you get to the clinic, you have to pay for the nurses to give you medication. Going there becomes useless if you have no money. We watch our children when they are sick and pray that they don’t die,” said Ms Moyo.

“Sanitation is a matter of concern here. We have                   no toilets at Matika. We used to have Blair toilets but they are no longer used because they are now full. Now we use the bush. Our condition is not at all easy,” she said.

“Food relief programmes come to Woodville but we never benefit from them. They say they give the food to old women and men. When we tell them we are also widows they say we are young and should get jobs. Jobs are nowhere to be found. We have hunted for them for long but there are no jobs,” said Ms Nkomo.

She said they always prayed that they would get help and fortunately God answered their prayers.

“We have managed to get some help through Mthwakazi Affairs Organisation. The organisation has leased land for us here in Woodville and we will be doing different projects,” said Ms Nkomo.

Mr Ernest Ncube, the Director of Mthwakazi Affairs, said his organisation has committed to helping the Matika ladies by introducing projects that they can do to eke out a living.

“Mthwakazi Affairs has already started helping the Matika widows. We leased six acres of land at Woodville and the widows have already started to clear the land in preparation for the projects. I have managed to partner with Choppies which agreed to offer broiler chicks for the project. The women will also plough the other part of the land and plant different crops which they will sell,” said Mr Ncube.

He said he leased the land for 10 years and hopes in that time the women will be better placed in life.

Mr Ncube said: “Mthwakazi affairs has no funders, therefore it is a challenge getting equipment to build fowl runs for the chicken project to begin.

The widows are also having a challenge clearing the land as they will be hungry. As much as we, as an organisation are helping, the women still need more help,” said Mr Ncube. — @cchikayi.