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Traditionally, children have been prioritised in the society and their protection has been of concern (Masuka, et.al., 2012). Masuka further argues that of the over one million orphans in Zimbabwe, only 527 000 of these currently have access to external support. In Zimbabwe, child welfare has been generating attention since independence in 1980. Ndlovu (2011) observes that both traditional and contemporary child support and care revolves around health, shelter and education.

Despite the dissimilarities of the traditional and contemporary OVC coping strategies, they both seek to achieve the same objectives (Ngwerume, 2009).

Objectively, the effectiveness of OVC coping strategies lies in physically and mentally developing a child (NAC, Ministry of Public Service, Labour & Social Welfare and UNICEF, 2005; National OVC Policy, 2004). Ngwerume further emphasizes that the nature of OVC care and support embraces both the physical and psychological needs of children. Thus, National OVC Policy (2004) stipulates food and nutrition, education, medical care, psychosocial support and shelter as the major OVC challenges in Zimbabwe and beyond. Figure 3.7 below illustrates the major elements which conceptually and theoretically determine the dimensions of the nature of OVC care and support in Zimbabwe. As alluded to in Chapter One (Wanyama, 2010; UNICEF, 2010; Gomo et.al., 2003), although OVC prevalence is a result of a combination of multiple factors, HIV/AIDS has caused more deaths than any other factors. Following on from this, the nature of OVC crisis, care and support is illustrated below in relation to the impact of HIV/AIDS and chronic poverty on the OVC crisis in Zimbabwe. The combination of poverty and HIV/AIDS has recurrently been identified as the main factor influencing the nature of OVC in Zimbabwe and beyond.

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Figure 3.2: Impact of HIV/AIDS and Chronic Poverty on OVC Challenges

Source: Williamson (2000:34) Reduced access to health

services

Problems with shelter and material needs

Life on the street Increased

vulnerability to HIV infection

Children without adequate care

Discrimination Exploitation child labour

Sexual Inadequate food

Children withdraw from school

Death of parents & young children

Problems with inheritance Economic

problems Reduced/loss of

productivity

Children may become caregivers

Psychological distress HIV infection

Increasing serious illness

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The diagram (Figure 3.2) above illustrates the various elements that constitute the nature of OVC care and support in Zimbabwe and beyond. Williamson (2000) argues that although the nature of OVC care and support can be expressed in various elements, can be condensed into five major elements as Food security and Nutrition (economic problems and inadequate food); Education (children withdraw from school, life in the street, loss of productivity and increased vulnerability); Medical care (reduced access to health services, increased vulnerability, death of parents and young children); Psychosocial support (life in the street, problems with inheritance, psychosocial stress, discrimination, exploitation and loss of productivity); and Shelter (economic problems, children without adequate care and increased vulnerability). In this view, Williamson (2000) highlights all the socio-economic challenges that the OVC encounter due to the loss of parents because of HIV/AIDS or because of chronic poverty. Such problems can also replicate the Max-Neef (1991) and Maslow (1943) basic human needs theory and the dimensions of care and support deemed necessary to OVC in this study. Accordingly, Reyneke-Barnard (2005) argues that both the traditional (Ubuntu based approach) and contemporary (neo-liberal approach) coping strategies should holistically address these dimensions of needs. This being the case, literature on the nature of care and support provided to OVC is reviewed based on these five key elements.

3.4.1 Food and Nutrition OVC Need

The concepts of food and nutrition were defined by UNICEF (2010) as follows:

Food is understood as any audible substance, composed of carbohydrates, water, proteins and fats either eaten or drunk by any animal, including humans to give energy or help build up the body for growth, while nutrition is a process in which one consumes food or nourishing liquids, digests and absorbs and uses them for health and growth. Mugurungi (2006) further defines nutrition as a three-part process that is consumption, digestion and circulation of the food within one’s body. Thus, the origin of the word “nutrition” is linked to the Latin words

‘nutritionen and nutrine’, meaning ‘a nourishing’ or ‘to nourish’ (Mugurungi, 2006). In fact, the whole process of metabolism in human and animal bodies is actuated by food and nutrition.

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Mugurungi further argues that food and nutrition and the quality of life one lives cannot be disaggregated but is rather understood as one. Food can be consumed in diversity but should provide a balanced diet that is comprised of all the nutrients deemed necessary for the healthy growth of human beings. Informed by these definitions, Ngwerume (2010) reveals that adequate nutrition is universally recognized as the foundation for proper physical and mental development of children. Hence, lack of adequate and appropriate food, especially for children, has long term consequences for their physical and mental growth. Makore-Rukuni (2001) argues that malnourished children score poorly in tests of cognitive function and have poor psychomotor development. The Regional Psychosocial Support Institute (REPSSI) (2001) observes that such children tend to have lower activity levels, interact less with their environment and fail to acquire skills at normal rates.

REPSSI further notes that generally lack of adequate food reduces the life expectancy of people and makes them even more vulnerable to disease. Ultimately, erratic and inadequate supply of food culminates in the increase of adult and infant mortality rates in most African countries (Tigere, 2006).

Additionally, inadequate food supply directly impacts on the productive capacity of adults and ultimately their sustained capacity to care for OVC (SAFAIDS, 2009).

The ability to provide adequate food and nutrition is the primary element of care by many Zimbabwean families. Chandiwana (2009) argues that in Zimbabwe the provision of food is a major challenge for both the government and the local communities. According to UNICEF (2010), the Zimbabwe Nutrition Survey of January 2010 reveals that there is chronic malnutrition, posing challenges to long term survival and development challenges in Zimbabwe. Thus, the rural communities in Zimbabwe have become a hub of the manifestation of food crisis and poverty. In rural households like those in Gutu District, the main factors in the continued availability of food include family labour, gardening and cattle rearing (Oxfam, 2007). Therefore, human empowerment in those socio-economic areas can enhance sustainability in OVC care and support. Contrary to that, Oxfam (2007)

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argues that the poor people in the society, even if they own pieces of land, lack the resources required for production.

Chronic poverty resulting from an unstable global economy, climate change and population growth has affected the socio-economic livelihoods of rural households (Gomba, 2012). Land shortages, especially in Gutu District, predominantly affects households that did not take land distribution seriously in 2002 and chose to remain in their traditional homes. Musungure (2005) reveals in the “Fast Track Land Reform Programme Study in Zimbabwe” that only 30% of the total population in Zimbabwe benefitted from the land reform programme. Consequently, 70% of the population and possibly more are still experience land deprivation. Their animals lack adequate grazing which compels them to restrict their cattle to an insignificant number. More so, the unstable climate changes pose serious challenges to food and nutrition in that there is not enough food being produced in the fields. Subsistence farming which is traditionally known for sustaining rural families has been affected by climate change, resulting in chronic poverty. Chandiwana (2009) identifies the types of crops currently grown to be not relevant, land shortage and the death of the old generation who passed with their wealth of traditional knowledge in food production.

Besides land shortages, studies by Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (2005) in the Zimbabwe National Strategic Planning 2005-2010 indicate a high level of adult mortality due to HIV/AIDS which has affected the agricultural labour pattern of the rural households. The loss of adult bread-winners results in the loss of agricultural skills and experience and breaks the chain of knowledge transfer and labour sharing between generations. A classic example is the extrication of the traditional ways of undertaking farming and ensuring food supplies in the communities (Kaya, 2002).

This was mainly due to the deaths of older people who were custodians of indigenous values and traditions. Kaya (2002) emphasizes that this shift from the traditional modes of agriculture into modern approaches were not in tandem with the climatic conditions. The introduction of these modern agricultural approaches contrary to the indigenous knowledge systems accelerated poverty to the local

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communities (Tundra, 2004). Tundra (2004) further argues that most of the rural homes are left in the custody of vulnerable and disempowered women due to the deaths of their husbands or because their husbands left to seek employment. Hence, 80% of the traditional agrarian societies rely on women to produce food. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that most of the women are not educated, re landless and experience patriarchal oppression within their societies Kugler, et.al.

(2011).

The escalation of these challenges is attributed to the philosophical or cultural conflicts between Western and African food, educational and development models (Kaya, 2002). According to Kaya, the problem of food and nutrition in Africa was not only aggravated by lack of food but by the promotion of Western agricultural, governance and social welfare systems. Ayittey (2006) and Odora (2002) share the same view that in the post-independence era, most of the African countries strove for excellence by embracing Western governance systems, way of life and products.

In this regard, Odora argues that Africans aimed for excellence at the expense of relevance. One example of these changes that affected food supplies in Zimbabwe is seen in agricultural systems. Takavarasha and Rukovo (1989) posit that the replacement of traditional crops such as mhunga (cereals), zviyo (sorghum) and mapfunde (rapock) with commercial crops has undermined the harvests of the local people. These crops were important not only for good nutrition but also because they were appropriate to the climatic conditions of the Gutu District (Region 4) in Zimbabwe.

In addition to direct consumption, Chimuka (2001) observes that these crops played a pivotal role in their rituals, especially in their ancestral worship. Traditionally the Zimbabwean social welfare system was chief or kinship-oriented but these structures were undermined. The Zunde ramambo and kinship welfare models were replaced by NGOs and social welfare models controlled by the government. The ability to provide enough food had been managed traditionally by the community leaders (chiefs and kings) and it considered an achievement ofthe community leadersif their people are well fed and are happy. Thus, like the Jesus Christ in the

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Bible fed the masses and people showered him with all the glorious names as King, Messiah and Bread of life. So, the same should be still happening to the chiefs and kings of the African societies (Machingura, 2012).

Unfavourably, Oliver (1969) argues that although the deification of kings and chiefs in Zimbabwe continues the ability of the masses to provide food has shifted and is now more formalized than it used to be. This formalization, according to Mbigi (1995), removed the socio-economic structures and traditional leadership powers.

Alongside other natural factors that contributed to poverty in Zimbabwe, change of crops and socio-economic and political systems have also contributed significantly to food supply problems and the attention of people on food supply was shifted from the kings and chiefs to the government and NGOs, which in Zimbabwe has proven overstrained (Chandiposha, 2013). The government appears to have recently adopted the communitarian approach in food supply through its policies, namely the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act of 2000 and the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset) of 2013-2018 (GoZ, 2013).

The GoZ (2013) emphasizes that the agenda for the Zim-Asset policy entails empowerment of the society and growing the economy from grassroots level, among other issues. It suggests that the government of Zimbabwe recognizes the need for capacity building at community level as a major requirement for improving food security. Ngubeni (2013) argues that ZimAsset replaced the Short-Term Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP) economic policy for the Government of National Unity (GNU) of 2009-2013 as a new economic policy with an emphasis on ‘Indigenizing, Empowerment, Development and Creating Employment’.

STERP as a policy for GNU in Zimbabwe focused on food security, agriculture and natural resources, which were all included in the ZimAsset as a new economic blueprint.

Ideologically, Ngubeni posits that the policy is a practical application of communist existence as defined by Nyerere’s Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) in

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the 1950s to 1980s in the widely-referenced Arusha Declaration which states that,

‘The means of production and exchange should be under the control of peasants and workers’. Masungure (2013) observes that the ZimAsset is an all-inclusive policy that focuses on every development arena of the country. Thus, food security as part of OVC care and support is a critical development aid to the attainment of the ZimAsset. Its focus on indigenization is congruent with the appraisal of the bio-ethical, moral and traditional powers for sustainable development. By appraising the utility of bio-ethical powers, Masunungure (2013) points out that it means the resuscitation of the traditional structures and approaches to food security and development at community level.

This thesis subscribes to Kaya’s (2002) view which refutes the Eurocentric view that Africa was a tabula rasa before colonization. McCarthy (1994) opines that in striving for excellence Africans were made to believe that it is a continent without a history of civilization. Thus, the Western knowledge system was regarded as the only means to validate Africa’s ideas, beliefs and the general way of life (Kaya, 2002). In this view, Africans were regarded as unscientific, primitive and unprogressive. McCarthy further emphasizes that Africans were regarded as people who could not produce human capital capable of addressing the problems of modern science and technology associated with globalization. To this end, it may be envisaged that while food and nutrition plays an important role in human development, especially in relation to OVC, challenges of food and nutrition were caused by chronic poverty, global climate change and changes in governance systems. Thus, food and nutrition is considered a burden in OVC care and support in Zimbabwe and invites various strategies for sustainability.

3.4.2 Educational Needs

Chambers (1983) views education as the process of learning and acquiring information. Formally, education requires attendance at a formal school or university and informally, one is involved in self-teaching and acquiring knowledge from life experiences. The provision of education remains one of the most pressing priorities for Zimbabwe households (MoPSL&SW, 2005). According to Oxfam

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(2005), studies undertaken among OVC care-givers at household level indicate that education is one of the three primary priorities of OVC care and support at household level. From these studies, suggestions from care-givers on how they could be assisted to care for OVC included education support and provision of credit, food and clothing. Amongst these, education is the most fundamental need as it lays the foundation for most of the social and economic indicators. GoZ (2004) emphasizes that education is the main engine for human capital development and hence a key derivative of higher incomes and economic growth. The importance of education for the sustainability of community-based OVC coping strategies cannot be over-emphasized.

Oxfam (2007) further notes that education is associated with the ability to make choices and provide opportunities, in particular for women, promote better family health and nutrition, lower maternal child morbidity, lower birth rates and promote psychosocial security amongst children which contributes to improved social structure. The UNDP (2010) suggests that attaining basic education and the resulting employable skills constitutes an important part of preventing HIV/AIDS and breaking the cycle of poverty. REPSSI (2002) argues that education has positive impacts, particularly for OVC, because not only are they enabled to have a higher income but also because people who are better educated and informed are less likely to contract HIV and also tend to have children later in life. Education thus plays a central role in sustainable development for OVCs, community and care-givers.

Education from the formal point of view is both practical and theoretical (Kaya, 2002). Cuthbert (2007) argues that unlived knowledge is not conducive to promoting human development. Similarly, Lovline and Standish (2002) suggests that the principal aim of Bildung theory (European educational system) is to strengthen the person’s innate powers and character. Further to this, Biesta (2002) explains that European education is meant to cultivate the person’s humanity and promote bio-moral powers of development in a person. This suggests that education plays a pivotal role in the lives of OVC and the strategies for education must not

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only be excellent but also relevant to the recipients, culture and locality. Kaya (2002) emphasises the practicality of education more than the theoretical or the relevancy more than the excellence. Practicality and relevance in the formal education system in Zimbabwe invites more questions than answers in human development and empowerment (Magudu, 2012). Magudu views citizenship education as a stepping stone for social cohesion in the countries that were once colonies. In OVC care and support GoZ (2002) notes that it helps children and their care-givers to preserve their indigenous knowledge and the utility of their bio-moral and ethical developmental powers. In essence, indigenous knowledge was sought to be inculcated by Zimbabwe through its socio-economic blueprint of the ZimAsset, however much it was constrained by lack of resources on implementation.

In contrast, Nwanosike and Onyije (2011) points out that education in Africa predates colonialism, but the European nations used their stronger influenceto introduce systems that were foreign. Nwanosike and Onyije (2011) further emphasizes that although colonial education managed to boost the literacy rates of the general population in Africa, it was both progressive and retrogressive.

Progressively, Nyika (2015) notes that colonial education through the use of the English language as a medium has enhanced the global competitiveness of African people. Nyika cites issues of relevance, increased wages, policy making and socio-economic development status. In contrast, Kaschula (2015) refutes this view as retrogressive to African nationalities, which ought to scientifically develop their local languages and indigenous systems to more competitive levels. Kaschula (2015:1) argues that, ‘it is a real misnomer to think we must wait for a corpus of scientific literature before we can teach in our local languages and citizen knowledge’. In essence, what it means is that the contribution made by colonial education in shaping the socio-economic livelihoods of Africans is viewed with mixed feelings by different people.

One example is Zimbabwe’s literature rate and employability which is commendable in Africa, whereas its unemployment rate is 80% (GoZ, 2014). There

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are more employable graduates than can be absorbed through employment in Zimbabwe. Moyo (2012) argues that colonial education inculcated a culture of employability, dependability and exploitability in Africans. Colonialism disrupted the normalcy of the development curve of African education systems, which culminated in the demise of their social structures (kinship), cultural values and indigenous knowledge paradigms (Cooper, 2005). As a result, formal education

are more employable graduates than can be absorbed through employment in Zimbabwe. Moyo (2012) argues that colonial education inculcated a culture of employability, dependability and exploitability in Africans. Colonialism disrupted the normalcy of the development curve of African education systems, which culminated in the demise of their social structures (kinship), cultural values and indigenous knowledge paradigms (Cooper, 2005). As a result, formal education