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NewsDay

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Exclusive pictures: Doma’s forgotten children

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Wearing tattered and oversized clothes and standing with hands clutching their heads in awe of the vehicles that seem to be foreign objects polluting the way of their humbling life, the marginalised children of Doma are divorced from reality.

Wearing tattered and oversized clothes and standing with hands clutching their heads in awe of the vehicles that seem to be foreign objects polluting the way of their humbling life, the marginalised children of Doma are divorced from reality.

For them, living on the edge of the Zimbabwe-Zambia border in the marginalised and underdeveloped Mbire District of Mashonaland Central  where  they never get a chance to watch cartoons, let alone attend school or get access to any basic things like swings,  Doma children, sadly give up on life’s fantasies at an early age and resort to accepting the reality that they are meant to be bush people.

As children  in urban areas run to the ice-cream man, Doma children run from the dangerous animals like lions and elephants they share the habitat with.

Below are pictures taken by multimedia and online journalist, Tapiwa Zivira that portray the daily struggles of the children.

The pictures were taken during a visit by the Education Arts and Culture Parliamentary portfolio committee to the area as a follow up to a Centre for Community Development baseline survey that established the neglected area was facing critical poverty-related issues that include hunger,  lack of access to education, poor road and communication network, attacks from wildlife, among many others.

Children sit in the dust.
Children sit in the dust.

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Children gather around the parliament of Zimbabwe bus that brought the legislators who visited the area to assess the plight of the Doma people in Mbire District.
Children gather around the parliament of Zimbabwe bus that brought the legislators who visited the area to assess the plight of the Doma people in Mbire District.
A child plays near a Mbire District Civil Aviation Authority vehicle in Mariga.
A child plays near a Mbire District Civil Aviation Authority vehicle in Mariga.
Children huddle around a cellphone
Children huddle around a cellphone
A child gathers wild fruits known as masawu.
A child gathers wild fruits known as masawu.