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NewsDay

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Children hard hit by floods

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AT least 8 600 children living at Chigwizi transit camp on Nuanetsi Ranch following the Tokwe-Mukorsi floods urgently need assistance.

AT least 8 600 children living at Chigwizi transit camp on Nuanetsi Ranch following the Tokwe-Mukorsi floods urgently need assistance to enable them to access proper education, food, shelter and health facilities, a local children’s organisation has said.

FELUNA NLEYA

The Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children (ZNCWC) said the conditions under which the children were living were dire and appealed to government and other stakeholders to urgently provide basic needs for the children.

In a recent report, titled Situational Report on the Welfare of Children at Chingwizi Camp, ZNCWC said the children had no suitable toilets, food or shelter.

Out of the 8 600 children at the camp, only 1 608 were attending school, the report said. The report also said schoolchildren were being short-changed of learning time as they had to break early from classes because there were no water supplies and supplementary feeding at the school.

“Our assessment of the situation at the camp revealed the urgent need for child-focused strategies to specifically address the short, medium and long-term child welfare issues,” the report said. “ZNCWC noted with concern the inappropriate physical and socio-economic environment and other issues currently prevailing at the camp which include shelter, education, water and sanitation, health and child-friendly spaces.”

The ZNCWC appealed for infant formula milk, tents, recreational items such as soccer or netballs and toys for the affected children.

The report added only 1 238 out of 2 504 households were provided with tents.

Only one tent was provided per household resulting in children sleeping outside the tents to give their parents privacy.

“There is only one borehole for the whole camp with an estimated population of 18 000 people. This has seen children queuing for water for the whole day, thereby missing school and at times queuing until the early hours of the morning,” the report read. “This infringes upon children’s rights as they no longer have time to play, go to school and sleep.”

The report said toilets at the camp were not suitable for children as those were the same ones used by adults.

“There are fears of disease outbreak because of the water shortages and the proximity of the water points to the toilets,” the report added.