07/27/2004

It has never been easy to grow up on a commercial farm. Before the Government of Zimbabwe’s land reform project, children of farm workers attended schools funded by the large commercial land owners, but these schools were often not certified by the government and the teachers did not have qualifications. Children would travel 5 to 20 kilometers to attend these schools, which usually combined students of all grades together in one room.

After the implementation of the Fast Track Land Reform the situation has become direr. The new settlers, many of them struggling to farm the land, do not have the resources to provide even the meager schools available before. In addition to the current difficulties in accessing education, child labor has risen. Because farm workers can no longer work steady jobs, all members of the family have to try to work. Many children are no longer going to school but are weeding tobacco fields or picking cotton and tea, where their nimble fingers are particularly valued.  

Gloria (not her real name) is from a farm in Mashonaland East. She is 14 years old. Her deceased father was a farm worker and her mother did piece work on the farm until it was seized in 2001. Now she is not working at all. After her mother lost her job, she could not pay Gloria’s school fees. Since they had no other place to go, they elected to stay on the farm where Gloria and her brothers and sisters were born.

Gloria was working on the farm when a local organization awarded her a scholarship to go to school. Gloria worked in the fields weeding crops for the new settlers. She says, "I was paid Z$2500 a day (approximately 50 cents) to weed the maize fields.  My mother was working two days walk away. I could not wear the shoes that the organization bought for me because my feet were too cut up from working in the fields. There are six children in my family – two sisters are on their own and have their own children. The others are all working. I worked from 6 am until 3 pm, sometimes 5pm. If I didn’t finish the quota, I wasn’t paid."

Most of the children on Gloria’s farm were not going to school, but she was determined. Annual school fees amount to $Z 85,000 (approximately $15) and students must also wear a uniform blazer that costs Z$157,000 (approximately $30). Prior to receiving the scholarship, Gloria was working to earn a school uniform that the new settlers had promised her. Gloria loves school and studies English, Math, General Studies and Shona [the main language of Zimbabwe]. She likes all the subjects equally well. "I want to go to university to take courses to be a teacher. Because I want to teach others so I can help them. I am interested in teaching all subjects to little children. I do not want to stay on my farm. I will live anywhere – it will be better than my farm. In my class we have many people who cannot afford to buy uniforms to go to school. They come in their home clothes because their parents are poor."