ZIM CHILDREN AT RISK

ZIM CHILDREN AT RISK

An array of complex factors is creating a rising population of ‘children on the move’, vulnerable to violence, exploitation, human trafficking and abuse.

Today, more than 4 million people reside in locations considered high risk for transmission of waterborne diseases due to unsafe water sources, poor sanitation and hygiene with nearly half the population in rural areas practicing open defecation and the city it has been reportedly said that people returns back latrine systems which is unsafe. Chronic food insecurity remains an urgent issue for 3.5 million girls and boys living below the poverty datum line. There is risk of poor health and stunted growth due to greatly diminished access to all basic services and protections. The HIV and AIDS prevalence rate of 13.9 per cent remains one of the highest in the world, though a negative growth has been reported.  

Parents with children with HIV/AIDS leave there kids un cared for & they pass away earlier. When these parents die the children became orphans and most of them will have an oblique future, especially in our current economic situation which makes it difficult for step parents to provide all the needed support to these children.

 As the door to accessibility to ARVs has been shunned to many due to economic factors especially those who are hidden down in the very remote areas of the country, were even cell phones are still not yet there, clinics are still kilometer away with river and dam water being their safest water sources. Life for children in such areas has always been pathetic (in contemptuous pity), orphans are forced to pull out from school due to financial hardships or abuse by step parents. They live in a world where they will grow old without wearing a shoe, neither a new trousers. Children with disabilities are hidden behind the doors.

 Also even in towns the living conditions are turning the children to a menace as mothers do commercial sex for survival, all this leading to the pandemic of the deadly diseases, the children ending up in the streets , dying with HIV, indulging in early marriages and being sexually abused as they try to find survival means.