MWENEZI — Even at Kushinga High School, an established, top-ranked and well-resourced school in Chivi, Edzai Mazhazhate stood out among her brainier peers. Her dream was to become a lawyer. But that was before disaster struck while she was doing her “O” Levels.
By Tatenda Chitagu
The flooding in the Tokwe Mukosi dam basin in February 2014 that destroyed homes of 18 000 people from Chivi and Masvingo rural also swept away her dreams.
“I was in Form Four when we were affected by flooding at our original homes. Learning was disrupted as we spent months without going to school helping our parents to pitch up tents, look for firewood or tend to the remaining livestock that was lucky to survive.
“Subsequently, my parents, who were subsistence farmers, failed to pay exam fees for me. Even if they did, we hardly had time for learning. I dropped out of school up to this year.” Emily says, supporting her head with both hands.
Some families that were directly affected by flooding were evacuated, while those in the catchment area were forcibly ejected without compensation and moved to an overcrowded holding camp, Chingwizi, in Nuanetsi Ranch in Mwenezi.
Edzai’s dreams of a brighter future faded each day as they started their journey into the abyss to Chingwizi transit camp — a sprawling, parched settlement where they were relocated with thousands of other school-going children, whose learning was abruptly disrupted.
The camp was crowded and few lucky ones got tents from non-governmental organisations, while others opted for makeshift structures. Each family was given one tent, regardless of the number of family members.
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“We were lucky to get one tent, but we were all seven of us in it — my parents and four other siblings. There was no privacy, and no time for reading. We were reduced to refugees,” she says.
The flooding brought with it circumstances that would permanently alter the lives of thousands of flood survivors’ children as they shunned the sub-standard schools set up at Chingwizi in the aftermath of the disaster, which were very far from the holding camp.
Pupils have to walk about 20km every day to get to the makeshift schools and back, risking life and limb from wild animals that roam in the vast Nuanetsi sanctuary.
The poorly-resourced schools consist of poles and a tent, no benches and just a few desks, and some children said they had never bothered to attend, while others do not even know where the schools are located.
Only 50 teachers cater for the more than 2 500 primary and secondary school pupils enrolled at Nyuni primary and secondary schools, as well as Tokwe Mukosi Primary and Chingwizi Primary.
The pupils are exposed to the vagaries of weather and the environment is not conducive to learning for people who came from a flooding calamity.
A teacher at Nyuni Primary School who spoke on condition of anonymity said their enrolment was very low considering the number of students in the camp who they also mingle with in the forest searching for firewood or tending to livestock.
“They are not coming to school. Maybe it is because they have other duties to do as families disintegrated in the process of moving,” the teacher said.
“Some have to do household chores like helping in pitching tents for their families or herd their livestock.”
Virginia Gandoweri, a mother of two, said her children had not yet started going to school.
“They do not even know where the school is and have never been to school ever since we came here. It is a struggle for survival here. Either they are queuing for water, food or are looking for firewood while I will be with the goats or cooking. It is division of labour here. It is not only the future of us as parents that was destroyed by the disaster, but also that of our children and their children,” Gandoweri said.
More than 1 000 pupils dropped out of school this year, according to a report by Progressive Teachers’ Union (PTUZ).
The report, The dilemma of learning at Chingwizi, noted that the distant satellite schools faced great challenges which could be a factor hindering enrolment.
“Initially, there were about 4 300 pupils for both secondary and primary schools in Chingwizi, but when we carried out an audit, the figures had dropped to about 3 000 pupils. There could be many factors behind the decrease in pupil population, one being distance and, to a greater extent, hunger,” it reads.
Provincial education director Zedius Chitiga conceded that enrolment had fallen, but disputed that all the 1 000 pupils had dropped out, suggesting some could have transferred to other schools due to the living conditions there.
“While enrolment dropped, it is really difficult to say that all the 1 000 pupils dropped out. Some could have gone to other schools as their parents either left the camp or are staying with relatives in other places where they are going to other schools.
“Dropouts occur where the children are no longer going to school and are still in the vicinity. But when they are not seen, it could be that they have gone to other schools,” said Chitiga.
He said teams of education inspectors would be dispatched to Chingwizi to get the true picture on the ground.
Teenage pregnancies, rise in prostitution and STIs
Lying idle, many teenage girls got impregnated while hundreds contracted sexually transmitted diseases, according statistics from the National Aids Council (NAC). 210 cases of syphilis and gonorrhea were reported from April to June last year.
“People at Chingwizi are falling victim to the most common types of STIs, especially syphilis and gonorrhea. We do not know why the number of cases has been increasing, but we believe people are idle most of the time with nothing to do at the camp such that they end up indulging in unprotected sex,” NAC provincial Aids co-ordinator Ivos Makoni said.
“We also think the camp dwellers have stayed for so long in a closed environment and they end up having relations which end up being sexual. The outbreak is cutting across all ages and sexes. We do not have a particular age group that is not being affected,” he said.
There was also an increase in child pregnancies blamed on moral decadence fuelled by food shortages and a high rate of school dropouts.
As a result of the poverty afflicting most of the camp’s residents, most parents resorted to marrying off their juvenile daughters to “well-to-do” workers from the nearby sugarcane farming community, according to the PTUZ report.
PTUZ attributed the sad trend to the inhuman conditions in the camp, which now resembles a refugee camp, where parents share one tent with their grown-up children.
“This has also contributed to high sexual activity among students, moral decadence and social decay, let alone abuse, particularly by police, more so given the critical shortage of resources at the camp and the police’s strategic position by virtue of controlling food distribution and storerooms.”
The impoverished flood survivors have again fallen victim to a development project — this time to pave way for an ethanol plant by Billy Rautenbach’s Zimbabwe Bio-Energy Company (ZBE).
This means they will be relocated for the third time again to places without proper education infrastructure — and more disruptions to learning for the remaining pupils who have managed to weather the storm.
Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Shuvai Mahofa said they would be moved to different farms in and around Masvingo province.
But villagers, tired of being moved up and down with the few belongings that they were lucky to remain with, have vowed to resist this time, saying they are always at the receiving end and bad side of history.
