At the age of 17, Evelyn Rashid had become the father and mother of five children: Eleven-year-old Yankho, nine-year-old Angela, seven-year-old Blessings, four-year-old Shadrick 4 and four-year-old Favour.
Evelyn did not choose to become a parent and head of the family at this age. It is the death of her father in 2015 and mother in 2016 that took away some of her rights, in the process eroding her hopes and aspirations.
She was in Form Three at the time.
However, she had no choice but to drop out of school so that she could concentrate on the task of looking after her five siblings— two of which, Angela and Shadrick, suffer from down syndrome while the third one [Blessings] has physical disabilities.
Except for Yankho, who is in Standard Four, the rest cannot go to either nursery or primary schools.
Asked why the others do not go to school, Evelyn cites health problems in the case of Angela, Shadrick and Blessings.
Over and above, they cannot afford school fees [in private institutions], or to make a contribution towards school development fund and school materials such as uniforms, exercise books and pens in public schools.
Evelyn was born in Witness Village, Traditional Authority Kaphuka, in Dedza District. Her new home, though, is Tambalale Village, close to Area 23, in Lilongwe City, where she spends much of her time doing piece works.
She does so because she is committed to feeding members of her household.
When asked what her aspirations are, Evelyn still wants to continue with her education. She wants to get a Malawi School Certificate of Education and acquire necessary skills that may give her the capacity to look after herself and feed her siblings.
But this can only happen if institutions and people of goodwill take over the responsibilities of looking after the younger siblings while Evelyn concentrates on the search for school fees.
On challenges she faces, Evelyn has many but on the top of her list is that of taking care of her siblings when they fall sick. Sometimes, two or more fall sick at the same time but Evelyn only has a pair of hands.
At one point, when Angela and Shadrick were down with down syndrome, she took the siblings to Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe, where she was turned back without medical attention because she had not brought medical reports of the children.
The condition requires specialist treatment, she was told. She is in dilemma since she cannot find the medical reports, which got lost after the death of her parents.
This is just one of the numerous challenges that child-headed families are facing in the country. If not prone to abuse, they end up getting married at a tender age.
According Archangel Bakolo, who sometimes gives Evelyn a helping hand in taking care of the children, there are a number of ways through which Evelyn can be supported.
“One way is to link the children to child care centres,” Bakolo says.
Bakolo says it is sad that Evelyn’s siblings suffering, as they, sometimes, spend days without having a proper meal. They say education is the key to success.
“However, the lives of these children are going to waste if the government or well-wishers fail to reach out to them and bail them out of their predicament.
“I am sure that we will keep on nurturing a generation of vipers if children like these are left unattended to. We know that the government has a lot on its plate but we should pay attention to situations like these,” Bakolo said.
Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare spokesperson, Lucy Bandazi, says the ministry first assesses the situation of those in need of help, before determining the way forward.
Bandazi says, depending on the assessment, arrangements are made to either place children in alternative care or refer them to a service provider.
“No solutions are determined without [carrying out an] assessment first. The assessment helps, for instance, in knowing what kind of alternative care is needed,” Bandazi says.
Bandazi advises people to report cases like Evelyn’s to social welfare offices in various districts as they will be helped accordingly after proper assessment of the situation.
Whatever the case, in the case of Evelyn and siblings, such an assessment is overdue.
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