BEIRA - Beira has been flooded by Zimbabwean beggars who include street kids and disabled people who are desperately trying to eke a living. (Pictured: Elizabeth Takawira and Paul Makoni with a begging bowl at a street corner in Beira)
The Zimbabwean reporter who was in Beria witnessed several Zimbabwean beggers on Beiras streets. Elizabeth Takawira is a blind mother of two children, Tatenda (12) and Tavonga (10). The three of them survive on begging at busy Beira intersections. In addition, Tatenda and Tavonga, who are supposed to be in school, have ventured into car washing and selling cigarettes as a way of survival. The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF), an organisation that assists refugees and asylum seekers, says the increasing number of vulnerable groups begging in foreign countries is a cause for concern.
Simon Chipere of ZEF says the increase reflects the great tragedy that is in Zimbabwe today. World statistics estimate that 10 percent of a population of any country is disabled.
I decided to leave Zimbabwe in 2007, Takawira told The Zimbabwean. I took my children with me because there was no-one who was going to look after them if I had left them behind. I tried to look for help from the Ministry of Public Service Labour and Social Welfare but to no avail. We were sidelined and were labelled as MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) supporters by the traditional leaders in my home area. So when the relief food was distributed, they sidelined us. I felt hopeless and desperate. As an alternatives I decided to come here, add Takawira, who is originally from Chivi.
My children and I did not have any travelling documents. But, a lady whose name I cannot remember drove us here. Like a miracle, a kind-hearted worker at Forbes Border Post, assisted us through the border out of sympathy. He lied that we were going shopping, she said. She says on arrival her initial home was shop verandas until she met a Zimbabwean Samaritan woman, a Mrs Sharon Dhliwayo, who gave her a room to stay. She says Dhliwayo pays rent for her. I cannot go home now, things have not changed, she says. There are many issues that need to be addressed to improve the lives of people living with disabilities, she adds. Peter Makoni, a blind beggar, spends most of his time at the popular Mira Mar centre at the Beira beaches. He sings gospel tunes and plays a box guitar to entertain tourists visiting the beach.
Makoni and Takawira have teamed up to sell boiled eggs to supplement their begging. Makoni says the music he plays to passers- by soothes him too. I am lonely because my wife ran away with another man. She took away my children and so I decided to leave Zimbabwe. Like Takawira, he was also assisted by a man he named Paul Sithole, to cross the border in 2008. He also, like Takawira says: “I do not know whether I will return home. It is hard to survive at home without a decent job.
Post published in: News