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Video: The Doma people’s pain of neglect, abandonment

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IN the midst of the thick bushes, a series of randomly scattered homesteads of thatch and pole structures stick out like a sore thumb in this apparently wild environment.

IN the midst of the thick bushes, a series of randomly scattered homesteads of thatch and pole structures stick out like a sore thumb in this apparently wild environment.

BY TAPIWA ZIVIRA

The Doma people live in a semi-wild state, with no access to appropriate shelter
The Doma people live in a semi-wild state, with no access to appropriate shelter

Deeper into the village, down the narrow dusty road, what has been a quiet jungle appears to start to awaken, as one by one, people — mostly children — emerge from houses, and others from the shoulder-high patches of grass.

Some dressed in threadbare clothes, while others shirtless and barefooted, the children watch vehicles, that seem to be a disruption to their normal way of life in the quiet, wild Kanyemba area of Mbire District in Mashonaland Central, in awe.

For the children, living on the edge of the Zimbabwe-Zambia border in the marginalised and underdeveloped, Mbire, where they hardly have a chance to go to school or access to many basic playthings like swings, Doma children, sadly give up on life’s fantasies at an early age.

Their only option is to help their families look for food in the wilderness.

Condemned to poverty, the Doma people live in a semi-wild state, with no access to appropriate shelter, electricity, proper road infrastructure and water and sanitation facilities.

Dangerous wild animals like elephants and lions lurk in the bushes around their homes, presenting a daily threat to life. To adapt to the danger, they have built grass and pole cages that are high enough to keep them safe from predators.

Mbuya Muromochinyerere (60) of Mariga Village, told NewsDay Weekender she is no longer able to climb into the cages, so she sleeps inside a little hut, which, despite being polished with dagga, still exposes her to predators.

“I have accepted my fate. Whatever comes to me, I am prepared to die. At least I will leave a huge family,” she said.

She has eight grandchildren at her homestead, all school dropouts. Chengetai (16) dropped out of school last year in Grade 2.

She is one of the many children, who have been forced out of school, after government, through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Schools, allegedly forced the shutdown of Seventh Day Adventist-built school in Mariga.

Legislator Fanuel Munengami, who is part of a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education, Arts and Culture said the committee was aware of the issue and promised they to move a motion in Parliament to have the school re-opened and push for government’s attention to the plight of the Doma people.

The closure of the school, which allegedly took place after Education minister Lazarus Dokora visited the area, is in direct contrast to the country’s need for more schools.

In March, Dokora said government had secured $20 million from Opec Funding for International Development, which was enough to build just 17 schools amid findings in a 2013 education infrastructure audit exercise that the country had a deficit of 2 056 schools, a requirement that government is unlikely to achieve in the near future as it is failing to meet basic obligations like paying civil servants in time.

“The infrastructure remains inadequate and for some pupils, it is unsafe and not conducive to quality learning,” Dokora told journalists last month, and with such a scenario, the closure of the school at Mariga, which villagers touted as politically motivated, is an irony.

“I only started going to school two years ago (at 14) and I was in grade 2 when the school closed last year,” she said wistfully.

The Seventh-Day Adventist-built schools in Mariga consist of brick one brick and mortar block and five corrugated iron block that are fully furnished, with a borehole constructed in between the two schools.

According to the villagers, the school was reportedly shut down because they did not meet the minimum basic standards.

The nearest school at the moment, Chapoto, is not easily accessible from Mariga.

A study by the Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ), this year, concluded that pupils now need to travel over 10km to Chapoto and have to navigate through the thick Nyasogo forests, which are “infested with dangerous wild animals such as lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo and hyena.”

With their dreams of attending school and, breaking the vicious cycle of poverty shattered by the government’s decision to shut down the school, Chengetai and her siblings now spend their days at home scavenging for food.

A wild fruit, masawu, has become their staple.

Some non-governmental organisations have initiated gardening projects and have drilled boreholes in some parts of Mariga and Chapoto. With the gardening projects, villagers can now manage to grow vegetables to improve their diet, but it appears it will take more than just gardening projects to improve their livelihood.