By Dylan Murambgi
THE Economic Justice For Women’s Project (EJWP) ongoing campaign has revealed the existence of hardships faced by children in female led households on the back of calls for key stakeholders to join hands in dealing with the problems.
The women led NGO is currently implementing a campaign running back to back with the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence which kicked off on November 25 and will run up to December 10 2025.
The campaign’s partners are the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), Female Students Network (FSN), and Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust (SAPST) supported by Southern Africa Trust (SAT).
The program’s working document has however exposed the quality of life lived by children in female led households.
“The degree of child rights violations that we witness stem from the poverty, particularly in female led households that have failed to secure employment in Mining companies they are hosting their communities. This results in child labour where you children also become a part of securing household livelihoods in the informal economy.
“Access to education remains a purview of the privileged with the poor households dropping their children from school, particularly the girl child. This also has seen rampant increase in child marriages and a sharp rise in STI infections amongst girls, this is rampant in Goromonzi,” the communiqué observed.
The EJWP says as a result, women carry the burden of care and in some instances end up sharing it with children particularly girls who are assuming the roles of energy sourcing, water sourcing where, due to the competing uses of water between communities and mining companies, communities end up desperate for rationed portable water fuelling exploitation, sextortion and abuse at water points.
The organisation said most of the mines leave open pits which are a hazards zone for the community, for children playing in open spaces unmonitored.
The emerging need to closely monitor children while playing increases women’s care roles and burden and in the absence of a legal mandate for mining companies to give back to communities , the plight of women is worsened.
“In modern day investment in mining, the companies are profit oriented and careless about the communities that host their activities which is why the Mines and Minerals Bill should mandate mining investors to give back to communities, with clarity on the percentages of their profits and this should be enforceable and punishable. Mineral rich communities remain living on the peripheries of poverty despite huge and profitable investments in their communities,” the EJWP document added.
