Msasa Project manager Netty Musanhu has revealed that poverty, which is being driven by economic hardships is increasing violence against children in Zimbabwe. Musanhu was speaking during the launch of a campaign to end violence against children where the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Honourable Petronella Kagonye was the guest of honor in Harare.
The project manager said this as 68 percent of children who went out of school was because they failed to pay school fees according to according to Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children (ZNCWC) national director Taylor Nyanhete who also presented during the launch.
“Child labour is on rife and when you have a child taking care of a home, doing chores while is supposed to be at school that is child labour,” said Barbara Kalima Phiri, Senior Advisor, Advocacy and Justice for Children at World Vision presenting.
World Vision is making a campaign to end violence against children in Southern Africa and Zimbabwe has become the third country in launching. Violence against children has been a problem in Africa as Phiri revealed that 1 in 3 girls in South Africa is sexually or violently abused per minute.
In Zimbabwe, cases of children at the age of 11 meeting sexual violence have been reported.
“I think enough is enough, we want to take action (on violence against children), this has already been said before,” said Phiri.
Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have in the past been advocating to end child marriages against children although the trend of abuse seems to continue.
Zimbabwe has in the past experienced severe droughts which led the country to be food insecure resulting in an increased poverty. Estimations show that 4.1 million people were food-insecure in 2017 although there was a bumper harvest in the country.
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