By Margaret Mangani –
THE story published in the newspaper recently of a thirty seven-year-old woman of Kamakonde Township in Kalulushi who had disappeared from home and left her four children on their own , among them a six-months old infant indeed made sad reading.
The issue is not only heart-breaking to a parent but also leaves many questions than answers.
It is another case of child neglect which is punishable by law through the appropriate agencies of government.
Children whether brought up by a single parent or both require certain basic rights to be met such as food, shelter, education and medical care.
Apart from that they also require emotional love as well as parental guidance too in the absence of which they are rendered to be street kids.
The woman identified as Sharon Bwalya, also known as Sharon’s mother left her four children about a month ago to seek some casual work but never returned home.
In the circumstances one would have raised suspicions over her disappearance from home that maybe something might have gone.
In this wicked world where crime thrives nowadays it was easy to speculate that fate could have befallen Ms Bwalya which could have forced her into abandoning the children.
Women and children have been victims of violent crime and this we read about daily.
But how can a caring mother honestly leave behind her six months old baby who was still breast-feeding?
Obviously at some point the infant needed to suck and then the mother was nowhere to be seen for an entire whole month.
Not being able to take solid foods the six months old baby was definitely starved of the most essential food, which is the mother’s breast-milk for that particular period when the mother was away.
It is unbelievable that such a thing can happen to any sane mother.
The most reasonable thing for the mother to have done was to at least carry the youngest child on her back knowing that the baby will need to breast-feed during the process of searching for the so called casual jobs.
But this was not so.
In Ms Bwalya’s case she left behind all four children including the six months old baby under the care of the other siblings and never to return home.
And funny enough none of her relatives made an attempt to report the matter to police over her disappearance or coming to the aid of the poor children.
Surely the children were left alone to languish on their own save for the interventions of the good Samaritan neighbour who came to their rescue.
But for how long was this going to last?
The scenario makes one to wonder how family units have broken down to the point where none communicates at all or do not even care.
For heaven’s sake it is a known fact that women regardless of their circumstances in life would rather stay with their children and share with them whatever little means they have as required regardless of the circumstances they were experiencing.
It is unlike the story of the Shunamite woman in the old testament bible who looked up to God even in the agonizing circumstances despite the death of her son in 2 Kings 4:837.
As things turned out to be that did not leave one to speculate that being a single parent or whatever the circumstances the woman in issue could have been going through it should not have been reason enough to be force to cohabit with some man somewhere as a solution to her problem.
Be it as it may be Ms Bwalya it was later learnt that in the process she opted to abandon her off-springs for the sake of the marriage of convenience for survival.
One wonders what type of man would accept to take in a breast- feeding woman for a wife minus her baby.
By virtue of Ms Bwalya cohabiting indeed chances of her having unprotected sex are very high.What then happens when she conceives again will she keep that child or abandon her/him once more?
Meanwhile the rest of her other off springs are languishing in poverty.
Yet within the country there are so many couples who are struggling to have children and would do anything under the sun to become parents.
The decision by Ms Bwalya to move in with some man prompted the sympathetic neighbour to appeal for help from the church or other organisations.
The good Samaritan as quoted in the story further appealed to the children’s welfare for help as the burden of feeding the children was obviously becoming too much to bear.
Whether the other older children even go to school that is another issue worth probing.
If not the other children at some point may just turn into street kids one day due to lack of support and add on to the already shocking statistics existing in the nation.
A research on Zambian street kids scenario indicates that close to 73,000 children have become street kids who are unable to support themselves alongside their siblings.
The Report further tabulates that the number of child headed households stands at 11,500 children and youths between the ages of six and twenty –four.
These survive under extreme harsh conditions.
Socio -economic indicators show that women are poor 65 per cent and experience the more deplorable conditions than men who are at 52 per cent.
Poor women generally lack economic opportunities as such they struggle for survival which has forced them into dehumanising activities that exposes them to high health risks, prostitution as an economic activity is rampant.
Gender roles, combined with some traditional and cultural norms, increase women’s vulnerability.