Child Poverty in Mozambique. A Situation and Trend ... - Unicef

Evidence points to worrying increases in vulnerability among maternal orphans. The
vulnerability assessment undertaken in 2003 in drought affected areas indicated that
maternal orphans were over twice as likely to be severely stunted as the general child
population (36 per cent versus 15 per cent) (Martel 2003, see also Chapter II).
The participants in the 2005 Sofala study were asked to identify the main challenges
faced in their day-to-day lives:
• Obtaining food. 72 per cent of the participants identified obtaining food as a major
challenge. In order to obtain food, the children used a variety of methods, such as
purchasing food with money, working in exchange for food, asking friends, family
and neighbours for additional food or a combination of several of the above. The
children spent up to 60 hours each week in trying to obtain food.
• Lack of money. 78 per cent of the participants identified lack of money as a
challenge. 91 per cent of the children reported that the available money was
used to buy food, clothing, and domestic items and to pay rent. 51 per cent of
the children obtained money by working: some consistently (in bars or shops, for
example); some sporadically. 10 per cent of the children worked more than 60
hours a week.
• Education. Over half (51 per cent) of the children did not attend school, mainly due
to the opportunity costs of schooling (i.e. the cost of spending time in school that
reduces opportunities to use the time for other purposes, such as getting food or
earning money).
• Housing. 16 per cent of the children identified lack of safe and adequate housing
as a problem. Some of the children had no housing at all and slept outside; others
had to pay rent of around $17 per month for 3x5 metre mud shacks.
• Medical care. Obtaining medical care was another problem. 28 per cent of the
children reported that they did not seek help when they became sick.
• Physical or sexual abuse. 8 per cent of the children reported that they had been
hurt physically by adults, 90 per cent had not (2 per cent did not respond). 9 per
cent of the children reported that there was someone in their lives who currently
abused them sexually, while 91 per cent reported that no one was abusing them.
• Community attitudes. The children were asked about how they perceived
attitudes held towards them by adults and children in the community. Nearly
three quarters (73 per cent) reported that adults had shown some form of positive
or empathetic responses. 63 per cent reported that other children had shown a
positive response, although 8 per cent reported that other children had hurt or
mocked them.
Children heading households are more likely than other children to work in exploitative
situations, to be stigmatised, to be at risk of being trafficked, to be subjected to
violence, abuse and neglect or to be forced to make a living on the streets (MMAS
2004a). There are also specific legal challenges for child-headed households
emanating from the ‘legal incapacity’ of the household head to protect the rights of
children in the household in, for example, property inheritance claims by relatives.
Under customary law, judgements are more likely to yield land to adult relatives of the
deceased, rather than to the deceased’s children (Sloth-Nielson and Galinetti 2004).
It is becoming clear that the combination of poverty and the sharp increase in the
prevalence of HIV/AIDS is eroding traditional coping mechanisms, contributing to
a general increase in vulnerability and exacerbating food insecurity. Research has
206 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS