For a long time, children in rural Makoni District in Zimbabwe have let adults take leading roles in activities that they could take control of.
Although there have been initiatives such as Child Protection Committees (CPCs) formed at both community and school levels to deal with challenges facing children, these structures have been falling short as there is too much involvement of adults. Some cases of child abuse have been swept under the carpet by adults who claim to be child rights watchdogs.
St David Gunda Primary School Child Led Child Protection Committee has scored a first for the community for becoming both a child abuse whistle blower as well as an environment protection advocate.
The Child-led CPC at Gunda Primary School has assisted the school in identifying 59 school drop-out children in 2010 and 20 (seven girls and 13 boys) of these were enrolled back into the school under the Back to School Campaign funded by AAI ZIMBABWE partner, Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT Rusape). In the four FACT Rusape operational wards in Makoni District, child-led CPCs have helped in the identification of 200 drop-out children and out of this 200, 98 (43 girls and 55 boys) went back to school under the Back to School Campaign and were from 21 primary schools in 2010. An agreement was reached with the government Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) selection committee at affected schools that the remaining 102 school drop-outs would be incorporated into the BEAM programme in following years to come.
Gunda Primary School Child-led CPC chairperson Caroline Rugombiro (12) said her committee had exposed two child abuse cases within their community. One sexual abuse case involving a child from the school had been reported and was said to be under police investigation. There was also a report of a child who was being bullied by fellow pupils and had dropped out of school. The matter is reported to have been rectified and the child who was being bullied is back to school.
“Members of the committee have shown concern to other children, for example, recently, one of the members of the CPC, Doit Masotho has donated clothes to Mercy Marume, who is an orphan,” says Caroline. She said her committee had reported a case of children who were notoriously known for writing foul language on bamboo trees in the area. Culprits in the bamboo tree case have been brought to book.
“The children have unearthed cases which if investigated by the police or any other adult, could not be known by many. Children are opening up to other children and identifying the needs of other children,” Teacher and Patron of the Child Led- CPC at Gunda Primary School, Mrs. Beauty Kundishora said in an interview.
In 2007, FACT Rusape trained 90 women and 30 men from four wards in Makoni District to facilitate the formation of community based-CPCs. A committee of seven was selected from the trained people. Twenty one primary schools in Makoni sent one patron and two children (a boy and a girl) for the CPC training, which included training on children’s rights and responsibilities. In 2010, after realizing that child abuse cases were not being tacked well under the community based CPCs, Fact Rusape trained 60 children (30 boys and 30 girls) from two wards in Makoni District to facilitate the formation of child led CPCs.