Each of our visits to one of the villages attracted a crowd of children who followed us sometimes for a mile or more. Most if not all of our little followers were very young children. It is hard to estimate their ages, because lacking adequate nutrition, they don’t grow like our kids do. Time and time again, I was shocked by the answers I got when I asked a child how old she was. Dozens of kids I met, who seemed smaller and younger than my own 3 year old daughter at home, told me they were 5, 6 or even 7 years old.
Without a doubt, the kids who followed us could not have been more than 7 or 8 years old. Many were only toddlers. We saw many 4 or 5 year olds with babies in a sling on their backs.
One immediately wonders how all these very young children are running around without supervision. It is simply this culture. The mothers must work, so the children are left on their own every day.
As the 10, 20, or 30 kids trailed us on our walks, they would clamor to be the first one to hold our hands. Usually we each had a child holding both of our hands, while some held onto our sleeve or shirttail.
Not only are they left on their own, but the older children must care for their younger siblings while their mother is gone, sometimes all day. On one of our walks, we spotted a pair of kids, the oldest probably 3 or 4 years old, holding a baby on her lap. She was patting the baby’s cheeks and had her arms around his belly. They were all alone in the middle of a dirt field.
On another day, just on the edge of the Mapalo School grounds, we saw three babies together. The oldest might have been 2 years old. The other two babies were only crawling, so they must have been under a year old. The toddler found something on the ground and we watched as he divided it and shared it with the two babies to eat. It looked like styrofoam.
The hazards for children in the villages makes their lack of supervision even more alarming. There are many wells that are just open holes in the ground, a foot or more in diameter with no rail or fence around them, like the one we saw at Fostina’s house. A baby or toddler could slip through the hole in an instant. Charcoal being the main source of cooking in the villages, there are pits and containers of smoldering charcoal scattered in and around the homes. I was told that the primary injuries treated at the local children’s hospital are burns on kids who played too close to these pits and either fell in or caught their clothing on fire.
Kidnapping is a problem as well. There are stories of relatives snatching older children to care for their own babies while they work, or to work as extra hands on a farm, etc. School enrollment declines over time. Whether the cause is kidnapping or the mother herself keeping the child home, some older kids are told they must babysit rather than attend school. Wiphan is working hard on a solution to this decline. Educating the mothers about the importance of educating their children is an important step.
And in far too many cases, children become mothers themselves. A girl is often married by the time she is 14 or 15 years old, and pregnant soon after. Their husband is usually 5 to 10 years older. That thought causes a pit in my stomach. Fostina is 13 years old. To think she could be married and pregnant in the next year or two is heartbreaking.
We were invited to the home of one of the widows in the Wiphan Skills Training Class. Her name is Charity. When we arrived at her home, we met her beautiful and tiny baby, Jane, who is 7 months old. Jane was cuddled in a sling on Charity’s hip. Charity lives in a rented home for which she pays approximately $3 per month. It was a single room home, about 10×10 feet square. The roof of her home was made only of plastic grocery bags between wooden slats. She had a mattress for her and the baby. Her older children sleep on the dirt floor. When her husband died about six months ago of tuberculosis, his family came and took most of Charity’s belongings – her furniture, plates, bedding, etc. – and left her and her young children on the street. This is a common occurance when a man dies in this culture, called “property grabbing.” Charity is now selling sweet potatoes to support her family, and she is learning jewerly-making in Wiphan’s program.
In addition to her baby, Charity has a 6 year old and a 2 year old. Charity is a widow and single mother of three kids.
Charity is 19 years old.
This is Charity and her baby, Jane.
The stars over Zambia.