Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe - In Chitungwiza, a sprawling township
about 30 kilometres south-east of Zimbabwe's capital Harare, a group
of women and girls are lining up with tin cans to fetch water from a
shallow well near a river.
It's a scene common in southern Africa but rare in urban areas,
where piped water is usually available in homes or at a communal tap.
But the taps have been running dry for months now in Zimbabwe,
forcing people to scrounge water from unprotected sources like these,
by rivulets of raw sewage and festering mounds of uncollected
garbage.
It is here that the cholera outbreak that has claimed nearly 600
lives began in August before spreading to nine of the country's ten
provinces.
Although children are particularly vulnerable to cholera, some
have lost their parents to the disease yet themselves survived to
face an uncertain future.
Among them is 17-year-old Juliet Shayanewako (not her real name).
The 19 month-old baby slung across her back with a piece of cloth is
not her son, but her younger brother, Raphael.
Juliet was thrust into the role of surrogate parent after losing
both her mother and father to cholera in September. The two died
within three days of each other.
Balancing the water on her head, Raphael bobbing in time with her
gait, Juliet leads the way to her home - a single room in a four-room
house.
'Me and my sister (age six) were in the rural areas when they fell
sick and died,' says Juliet, gingerly setting down the baby and
water. 'By the time we returned, they had been buried.'
After the funeral, Juliet's maternal grandmother looked after the
children for about two months before returning to her rural home.
'We now stay alone - the three of us,' Juliet says. 'Relatives
have been coming with food but they are no longer coming as
frequently as before.'
Raphael is receiving assistance from non-governmental
organisations in the form of infant milk formula and cereals. 'But at
one time they ran out because we had also started feeding on them -
our maize meal had run out,' she says. 'Now, I make sure that we do
not take his food.'
No-one knows yet how many children have been orphaned by cholera,
the latest crisis to hit a once prosperous nation that has been run
into the ground by populist policies.
Over half the population of 12 million is in need of food aid,
making them weak and vulnerable to disease.
Zimbabwe has the world's highest rate of orphaned children. Over 1
million children have lost one or both parents, mostly from HIV/AIDS
(16 per cent of adults are infected with the virus), or
poverty-related diseases.
Nine-year-old Bongani and his six-year-old brother Sibanengi (also
not their real names) from Budiriro township about 30 kilometres west
of Chitungwiza lost a parent to each HIV/AIDS and cholera.
Budiriro is one of areas worst affected by the cholera outbreak.
The boys' mother died on Saturday at a nearby clinic set up to
specially for cholera victims. Their father died of AIDS last year.
'The good thing is that cholera is likely to be a thing of the
past now since the United Nations, Britain and other big
organizations are going to assist,' their uncle says, referring to
the unusually frank appeal by Zimbabwe's government last week for
international aid over the outbreak, which it termed an emergency.
But experts point out that, while the call for a help was an
important first step, much more needs to be done to prevent cholera
deaths shooting up into the thousands.
'There are a lot of things that need to be done before victory
(over cholera) is proclaimed. For example, the supply of safe
drinking water and proper disposal of garbage and sewage has to
improve quickly,' says Dr Marcus Bachmann of Medecins sans Frontieres
(Doctors Without Borders) medical NGO.
Although some children have outlived their parents, the United
Nations children's agency UNICEF says children are the most
vulnerable to cholera.
'Children in Zimbabwe are on the brink, and everyone's focus must
now be on their survival,' UNICEF acting country representative,
Roeland Monasch, said.
USA
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