Child-headed households are on the rise in Zimbabwe, such that children of school-going age have been forced to transform overnight into ‘adults’, responsible for the day-to-day running of the household, amongst other things. It goes without saying that most of these children are slowly but surely being robbed of their childhood.

Child-headed households

In most communities it is up to the first-born child who is usually left in charge of the younger siblings and the household as a whole by his or her parent(s), to fend for the younger ones, by making sure that there is food on the table for everyone. This same child still has to attend school but sooner or later, gives their studies up as a luxury that their situation no longer affords them.  More often than not, this first-born child abandons his or her studies in order to concentrate fully on looking after their younger siblings and the household. This child’s future is placed on hold, while the parent(s) are seeking better opportunities and a better life for their family.

While some parents get lucky in their quest for opportunity and manage to send a monthly supply of foodstuffs and money, nevertheless, someone in the household has to manage the funds and the inflow of commodities, and usually the first-born child is delegated to perform this intimidating task. The fact remains, even in such a scenario, that this first-born child is unfairly deprived of a normal childhood. Instead of worrying about the things that normal teenagers worry about, the child who heads a household, worries about issues and matters that would normally be the concern of people ten years his or her senior.

HIV / AIDS

Other parents who make it successfully across the Zimbabwean border are not so lucky. They come face to face with the reality that jobs are also hard to come by in South Africa and, as a result, they are not in a position to send anything home to their children. In such a scenario, the first-born child has the daunting task of putting food on the table at all costs. If this proves impossible, the same child has to live with the misery and pain of watching his or her siblings subsist in abject poverty. The faint-hearted of these ‘breadwinners’ end up putting their lives and health on the line. They  ‘sell their bodies’ just to avoid seeing their siblings being chased out of school or going for days without food. HIV/AIDS looms large in such scenarios.

Only a decade ago a child, being anyone under the age of eighteen, had every right to be a child, a right that although not absolute, was at least accorded significant status in African culture and specifically, in Zimbabwe. The Ministry of Child Welfare in Zimbabwe was at the forefront of the protection of children’s rights and child-headed household were unheard of in the country.

A stark question remains: if our children are tomorrow’s leaders and if they are the future; then what kind of leaders is Zimbabwe breeding, and what future are we looking forward to?

Keyword: zimbabwe