Zimbabwean children are least likely to be protected: Save the Children Foundation

A report by Save the Children Foundation titled End of Childhood 2017 has ranked Zimbabwe 138 out of 172 in terms of terms of protecting childhood. The metrics used for the report are: under-five deaths, malnutrition, being out of school, child labour, early marriage,  adolescent births, and displacement by conflict and child homicide. Save the Children advocacy and communications adviser Sophie Hamandishe said:

For hundreds of millions or more children — childhood has ended too soon. The major reasons include poor health, conflict, extreme violence, child marriage, early pregnancy, malnutrition, exclusion from education and child labour.

Some of these childhood enders are not foreign to Zimbabwe. We also have cases of malnutrition among under-fives and a number of school-age children who are not in school. Some children are also engaged in child labour in our homes as maids, in the mining sector (kuchikorokoza) and child marriage.

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