LIZZY KUTYAURIPO, – OWN CORRESPONDENT.
Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – Crammed in a small four roomed house in one of Harare’s oldest high density suburb – Mbare these widows are burdened and pained by the struggles of life. In their old age, they lived and prayed for a better life from above, as according to them- ‘We are living by faith, taking each day as it comes.’
In the brink of her illness, 65 year old Mbuya Florence Marufu was abandoned by her only 27 year old surviving son, who deserted her to pursue his career as a soccer player.
Diagnosed with sugar diabetes in 2010, Mbuya Marufu became partially blind. Now, all her hopes for a better life were thrown in the gutter after her son despised her 2 years ago, left her alone without any money for medication or food. In pain and agony the ailing poor woman said she is living her life like the bird from the air which neither has a barn nor a field to reap and sow.
“We living like birds of the air, who neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. We survive from food handouts from well-wishers in the church.”
Mbuya Marufu is under the care of her elder, 67 year old sister Mbuya Emma Dhlamini, also a widow with no children she is the owner of the house they live in. They struggle with food and medication for her ailing sister such that they had to sublet two of the rooms at $40.00 each per month to source money for food, electricity and water bills.
“We are struggling with life and there seems to be no hope in sight. The medication for my sister is expensive and at one time we went to an eye specialist so that they could help my sister regain her eyesight, but the quotation requested that we raise at least US$2 100,00 for each eye,” Mbuya Dhlamini lamented.
As the wise words of the bible state that, ‘If a widow has children, they should show godliness to their household and make some return to their parents for it is pleasant in the sight of God.’ But as depicted by the lives of the two old women, they have each other only and no one else to take care of them.
In Zimbabwe’s economic crisis in the age of the deadly pandemic, these women are not alone. According to the National Ageing Network of Zimbabwe- Zimbabwe has at least 750 000 aged people between the age of 60 and above and 90 percent of them are living under vulnerable conditions.
“We are in the process of collecting the statistics, but at least 90 percent live in vulnerable conditions. While many have no form of employment the few who receive their monthly pensions earn as little as $50.00 per month,” said Marck Chakanza, Coordinator of the National Ageing Network of Zimbabwe.
Twenty-five kilometers from the Central Business District, in Hatcliffe Extention- in a plastic paper makeshift house- is home to 63 year old Enacy Chumba who cares for her six minor grandchildren. The eldest is a fourteen year old girl, while the youngest is 2 years old.
In those squalid conditions, Chumba also she struggles with almost everything in the house from food, blankets and clothes for the children.
“We are living under very difficult conditions. All the food that we eat is donated to us by well-wishers. During the rainy season our house leaks while we sleep on the floor without proper blankets,” Chumba said.
In Harare’s streets, many old people are seen begging for a living some with babies on their laps.
Chakanza said his organization has been advocating for the rights of the elderly people so that the government and the department of social work honors its mandate as stipulated in the constitution to support and protect the old making the plight of the elderly a priority.
“We are advocating that access to medical care for the elderly be universal, they should acquire free medical care from all government and non-governmental medical institutions,” Chakanza said.
Zimbabwe, drafted the Older Person’s Bill in 2002 but it was only enacted into law in 2012 and organisations which represent the welfare of the elderly say more needs to be done to align the Act to the new constitution. Chakanza says.
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