Siphi had transferred into her current secondary school from a boarding school due to “an outbreak of strange behaviour” alleged to include Satanism and lesbianism. This was corroborated by Mushanawani (2013) when he stated that some students were excluded from Lydia Chimonyo Girls’ High School with effect from 3 September 2013. Siphi regarded this transfer from a boarding school into her current school as very disadvantageous. The boarding school had been her first choice because “the environment helped me to grow and become independent.” Once in the current school, Siphi had to “do a lot of work before and after school in the home,” which she says left very little time for any homework. Khazan (2016) also observed that too often girls were burdened with household chores, cleaning and cooking at the cost of opportunities to do homework, and also had a long way to walk to school:
Walking a long way to school made me tired. That was why I was usually late and occasionally absent from school (Siphi).
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I go a long way and my route was not served by public transport (Mary).
Long distances to school affected students’ performance (Ngeno, Simatwa & Ayodo, 2012). Similar experiences were also confirmed by Mary:
I fetch water from the neighbourhood where there are boreholes since we don’t have running tap water, cook and also take care of my grandmother in the absence of my mother. My grandmother has bad asthmatic attacks and, in the absence of my mother, I look after her and ensure food is ready.
I find it hard to participate in sport after lessons (Siphi).
This was concurred with by Ashville (2016), who observed that, compared to boarding schools, day school students did not have time for fun and to form intense friendships to remember for life. Shar further added:
I need the time to rush home, start on my daily chores, such as looking after the home, washing, ironing and preparing supper for my family of one little brother, a single mother and two sisters, who are always away at work, leaving me with the burden of looking after my brother.
This was also the experience of Portia, Chena, Godf and Shar. These girl-child household chores were consistent with observations made by Luebker (2008) on gender responsibilities where girls worked anything from one to nineteen hours in unpaid domestic work, such as housekeeping and caring for other children and the sick. Siphi’s mother would be off as soon as Siphi arrived, if not earlier, for daily sales rounds as a “cosmetics hawker in the township till late or early morning.” This preoccupation with home responsibilities left little time for Siphi to do her homework. She did not expect her mother to help her because her mother was never home. Shar also had similar experiences and added:
My mother never has the time to attend school meetings. She has never read anything to me as far as I remember. We rarely have much to do together because again my mother does not stay home. It is like either I am home with the child or my mother is home with the child and never are
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we together at home. My sisters too are never home. When alone with the child, I watch TV while doing my work and cooking, and have meals with my little brother then sleep. When Mother returns, she finds us asleep and early morning I come to school while Mother sleeps. By the time I return home, Mother will be gone and sometimes both or one of my sisters will be home but often I am by myself. This has been our life.
Over weekends, I leave home by 5.30 a.m. to buy vegetables, eggs and sometimes green mealies from the vegetable market at Chikwanha then resell them on the streets. I do this when things are really bad to raise extra money when my mother and sisters are struggling too much with money for soap, food and rent (Siphi).
This narrative testifies that the at-risk children cared for their siblings and participated in household income-raising activities. The data concurs with Temah-Tsafack (2014), who stated that many other urban children in Zimbabwe had an even worse urban environment experience since they lived and worked on the streets where they were vulnerable to many risks and abuses as they carried out these vending, if not begging, activities. (Ibid) further noted that the situation of these at-risk children was actually heterogeneous, ranging from children who lived with their families, as in the case of these participants, and living on the street without family ties, and no access to basic rights fulfilment, as in shelter, dignity and protection.
The above narrative highlights concern with loneliness among the at-risk children. They were in social situations where parental and sibling socio-economic struggles isolated them in a process which denied them full psychosocial development. Biglan, Flay, Embry and Sandler (2012) argue that children needed to grow under the care and support of significant adults for the inculcation of the nurture role to promote the development of positive psychosocial behaviours. Experience of loneliness due to lack of opportunities to interact with other significant adults exposed children to feelings of lack of safety, positive self-evaluation and control in terms of values and morals (Biglan et al, 2012), to help children develop the capacity to learn how to cope and tackle difficult situations and challenges in life.
Further noted in this narrative was the fact that Chena, Siphi and Godf were actively involved in the labour market earlier than others (Kallio, Kauppinen & Erola, 2016):
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I help with roadside selling of vegetables. Whatever is available for sale when I must help. What can I do? (Chena).
I sometimes also sell stuff for my mother but often moved from house to house chasing payments from my mother’s favourite clients (Godf).
In addition to confirmed participation in hidden forms of employment (Bourdillon, 2009), they carried out unpaid care work for their families. They also did not receive sufficient attention to their health and education (Bourdillon, 2009) because they split the time spent at home to look after siblings, cook and attempt to do their homework. In addition, they confirmed supplementing household income (Harsch, 2001) by:
…waking up early to go to buy vegetables, eggs or second-hand clothes from the wholesale market for resale on the street to help get some money for the home when things are really bad at home (Siphi).