We recently celebrated World Children’s Day on Monday 20th November, which is supposed to help promote the rights of children and improve the lives of disadvantaged children across the world. I am deeply dismayed as to why no one has spoken out for all the little boys and girls of Zimbabwe who are currently living way below poverty, with some going a whole day without eating. Can you imagine going a whole day without eating and not knowing where or when your next meal will come from? More than a third of all Zimbabwean children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition. The consequences to their health are grievous: retarded growth and development, sickness and anaemia. They also have the second lowest life expectancy rates for new-born children in the world due to poor hygiene and a lack of care in hospitals. You cannot blame the doctors and nurses when the government does not prioritise the lives of these innocent kids. This current government has not been able to reduce poverty. If anything, it has worsened under the current leader. How do we as a nation expect progress or a change in fortune? Nearly 15 percent of Zimbabwean children do not attend school due to high tuition fees for schools with deplorable conditions, with teaching materials that are woefully below par. These children are being deprived of education and many other things. Kids should not go without being noticed due to recurring economic and political crises that restrict any sort of improvements been made. We are years on into this government and the children of Zimbabwe are suffering more than ever. These are issues that Mnangagwa needs to address if he wants to become president; otherwise, he should be a man and step aside to let someone younger with brighter ideas take over and help our forgotten children.
* Humans rights activist
Kudzai Clive Mashiri