Nineteen-year old Lazarus, now in his first year at a commercial college in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second capital, has been the head of his family, comprising of him and two younger siblings for the last four years. They live in the family’s four-bedroom house in a leafy and quiet suburb. Meanwhile, in a small backyard shack in Harare’s oldest township,  Patricia who has just turned fourteen is responsible for her ten-year old brother and six- year old sister.

The sad phenomenon of child-headed families as a result of parents‘ permanent or temporary absence due to the HIV/AIDS scourge or relocation to other countries  to work and live as economic refugees has been well pronounced since the turn of the new millennium. In the past, the extended family system would have absorbed them but that is slowly disappearing because of economic difficulties, greed and jealousy among families.

Better off
In Lazarus’s case, sad as it is, after both parents died of AIDS, he and the young ones are actually better off on their own. Their parents’ clearly written will saved them from lots of unnecessary trouble. For example, relatives who would only be after the possession of their beautiful house and other property left as their heritage. Luckily, Thabo their elder brother, who migrated to the United Kingdom three years ago, sends them money for school fees and food. However, he cannot visit them because he has no proper work permit. He has to make more money doing menial jobs to send for basic essentials back home, than to think about saving  for an air ticket.

Abandoned and abused
Patricia’s parents divorced two years ago and, one by one, abandoned their children in a two-room rented accommodation until they were kicked out by the landlord for not paying rent. But he was “kind” enough to accommodate them in a backyard plastic shack and exploits them in his informal trade, selling cigarettes, sweets, candles and matches for almost nothing. Their school attendance is very erratic since it is not monitored by anyone. All their close relatives in the city reject them while their uncaring parents are understood to have founded new families elsewhere.

Young house maids have also been left to care for children of professionals who have secured well-paid international jobs with, for example, the United Nations agencies and a variety of non-governmental organizations in hotspots such as Rwanda, Darfur, Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan among others.

Vulnerable
“We face a lot of temptations from unscrupulous relatives and neighbours who want to take advantage of our vulnerability. Some persuaded us to sell our house and property or attempted to abuse us sexually, but we know others like us who have easily fallen prey due to poverty, hopelessness and helplessness,” said seventeen- year old Chipo whose parents died in a road accident a year ago and she now looks after her two young sisters and brother.

Unfortunately, Lazarus, Patricia, Chipo and many other young heads of families around the country are suffering from a lack of parental care, love, advice and proper social integration which would mold them into being loving and responsible citizens themselves.

Listen below to what Norah Moyo, a social worker in the Eastern border town of Mutare, has to say on the subject: