PICTURE 20 people, including adults and toddlers, living
together at a bus terminus without warmth, privacy and access to water and
sanitary facilities.
Flies hover around human waste, while a heavy stench greets
anyone who dares draw closer to their makeshift home. But occupants there take
each day lived as a blessing and even have plans for the future.
This is what First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa came
face-to-face with during her visit to Mbare Musika in Harare where she was
leading the monthly clean-up campaign.
The First Lady nearly came to tears at the sight of the
four families, who have called the bus terminus home for between 23 and 29
years.
Their tales of challenges and constant visits by death did
not make life easy for the First Lady, who immediately summoned them to her
office to see how best she can assist them.
Apart from the lack of hygiene, the women have come to
accept frequent physical and sexual attacks as part of life.
One boy (name withheld), who says he is 15 years old, has
difficulties walking after being sodomised by a “Good Samaritan” who lured him
to Fife Avenue Shopping Centre on the pretext he wanted to offer financial
assistance and food.
He was sodomised by the “Good Samaritan” in his car and
contracted a sexually-transmitted infection that has not healed.
His wish is to get a birth certificate and go back to
school having dropped out of school when he was in Grade Three following the
death of his mother. The boy does not know his father.
Pauline Sithole (33), who started living at the terminus
when she was four-years-old, narrated how she lost her two children to the cold
and cholera within a year during which she also lost her mother.
But how did she come to live at the terminus?
“I came here with my parents from Mozambique when I was
four-years-old together with my two brothers who are older than me,” said
Pauline.
“That is when we started living here until my parents
separated and my father disappeared.
“We never heard from him up to now. Our life is all about
begging. I have five siblings and we all do not have identity documents and we
never went to school.
“We had our children in the streets and God had blessed me
with three children, but two of them died.”
Pauline paused for a moment while holding back her tears
before continuing after gaining strength.
“Sometime in 2017, I can’t remember the exact month, but it
was cold on the day, I woke up and left my children sleeping while I prepared
porridge for them outside the shack,” she said. “After some few minutes, I went
back inside to wake them up so that I feed them before going to beg.
“I was shocked when my three months old baby was lying
unresponsive. He was dead, though he had not showed any signs of sickness.”
Pauline broke down while narrating her ordeal. While she was still recovering from the loss of her son,
Pauline lost another child who was one and half years old.
“He had a running stomach for three days and died,” she
said. “We suspected it was cholera. The Harare City Council assisted us in
burying my children. My mother also died the following year.”
Pauline said the children do not have birth certificates.
“We are so many, just that some have already gone in the
streets to beg and my brothers sometimes get piece jobs,” she said. “Even our
children do not have birth certificates. If only the Government can intervene
and assist us to get identity documents.
“Of all the children you see here, only one, my child, is
going to school and an organisation called Mashambanzou is assisting me with
school fees. My husband is mentally challenged, not that he was born like that,
but it just started when we were already married.”
Pauline’s younger sister, Nozipa (23), has three children
and one of them aged 11 is disabled.
The child cannot walk or talk. “We just take each day as it comes and we are grateful to
God for the gift of life, though life has been hard for us,” she said. “We grew
up here and I had my children here also, though I do not know where their
fathers went.
“It’s not easy for me to go and beg in the streets because
my son needs special attention because of his condition. I am also pleading for
a wheelchair, but now that
Amai has visited us, our problems have been solved, we know she is a loving and
caring mother and we have faith that she is going to assist us.”
Nozipa said men take advantage of them while they are
begging, adding that even their children sometimes are abused by men in
exchange of food.
Revai Bhatison (44) said she joined the Sithole family in
the streets in 1997 after her divorce from her husband.
“I was kicked out without anything and went to my parents
in the rural areas, but life was hard there because since I was the
breadwinner, I was now finding it difficult to take care of my parents and my
children,” she said.
“I decided to come back to Harare and ended up in the
streets fighting for survival. I have five children and I gave birth to three
of them at this rank. Their fathers just disappeared.”
The families thanked the First Lady for her kindness and
love.
Amai Mnangagwa, who is the patron of Angel of Hope
Foundation, has been giving hope to the hopeless around the country and
yesterday she gave the families a shoulder to lean on while they cried for
help.
She invited them to her office and promised to assist them
in any way possible.
“I want you to come to my office. I will send someone to
pick you up so that we sit down and see how best I can help you,” said the
First Lady. “I am really touched. Magariro akadai especially nevana haana
kunaka zvachose.” Herald
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