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Cathrine Murombedzi HIV Walk
UNIVERSITY life is not a bed of roses, talk of studying, assignments and the challenges of securing affordable accommodation outside the campus. Due to financial challenges some students fail to stay on campus as the residence fees are expensive. One has to look for alternative accommodation which could mean just a place to put down their head.

Speaking recently to two young final-year university students, I felt their pain, their unmet needs and what Government ought to do for tertiary students to ease the burden.

During my time, a student only needed to worry about passing examinations. Tuition fees, accommodation and meals were provided. Over and above there was payout granted . . . enough to even buy folks back at home groceries and send siblings to school.

Today, listening to Precious and Runyararo my heart bleeds and theirs is just the tip of the iceberg.
Precious is a final-year student in Financial Accounting and Runyararo is completing her LLB Hons Law degree.

The two have been friends brought together by hardships.
Precious was born in Mutare in Chitakatira and attended both primary and secondary schools in the area. She only came to Harare after getting a place at the higher learning institution four years ago.

Runyararo was born and bred in Zaka and completed A-Level in her home area. Her story is similar to Precious; they came to college to enrol for the programmes they had been awarded at the University of Zimbabwe.

Both their parents now have no draught power after selling all the cattle they had to fund their education. Precious said she has borne the brunt of life hence in the future she intends to make a difference in a few women who she intends to help when she starts work.

“I have known what it is to go to bed hungry, I have known what it is to squat in a friend’s room who is on campus, I have known what it is to do laundry for other students in return for cash and food, so I have been through the tough patch of university life hence the last stretch will not deter me,” Precious said recently in Harare.

“Runyararo knows my aches and pains, she is more than a friend, she is a life mate having been brought together by difficult circumstances,” she said.

Runyararo chipped in saying that theirs was a friendship bound for life.
“For me Precious is a lifetime friend, precious as her name says is so precious to me. We have lived together for the past three years and we are both pleased that we have been passing with quite good grades. We have even done better than most students who have everything at their disposal so this last semester despite the hardships we will pull through,” said Runyararo.

Runyararo and Precious have been living with a man who is their ‘‘brother’’ and ‘‘husband’.’
“We both stay at a house in Mount Pleasant. The owner does not know that we are tenants at their place. In fact our ‘‘brother’’ who also wants to call himself our ‘‘husband’’ is the only one who knows of the arrangement.

“Paul, yes that is his real name, is a gardener who wants to call himself a landscape technician. He lives at the servants’ quarters at this beautiful house. We stay with Paul in his quarters. We sneak in and out every day because we are illegal occupants at the place,” Precious said.

She said that they play cat and mouse games with the owner.
“We play a cat and mouse game and we as the mice only leave the house in the wee hours of the morning before the owners are awake. If we fail to live in around 6am then we have to wait for them to leave for work and then sneak out. Sneaking out after 8am is tricky because one never knows when the landlord and missus are off.

“We missed lectures one day when we sought to leave after 8am, unbeknown to us both husband and wife were off and spent the day in the garden. We could not leave the house on that day so we now have resorted to leaving early before they wake up,” said Runyararo.

Runyararo said that since they are not able to pay their ‘‘brother’’ in cash they have to pay him in kind.
“Paul demands that we pay him in kind, we have no choice because he even gives us supper so we have to do the little that he demands of us,” said Runyararo.

On further enquiring if that sleeping with one man without consent could be called little, Precious chimed in.
“We surely are above 20 years, he has not raped us, but we entered into an agreement, it is rather an adult arrangement. He gives us accommodation and provides for our supper so we have resorted to fulfilling the contract as agreed,” she said.

That the two young females sleep with Paul because they do not afford to pay the campus fees which are out of this world. Poverty has pushed the two to extremes.

Should a girl sink that low to get an education?
Runyararo opened up and said that at one time both girls got an STI.

“At one time we both got a sexually transmitted disease. We both do not have any partners besides Paul so we hauled him to the varsity clinic where we all received treatment,” Runyararo said. “We were treated for syphilis and the nursing sister asked me to bring my partner. She also asked Runyararo to bring her partner since treating one person leaving the other risked re-infection. We were all treated but did not tell the nurse that we were in a three-some,” said Precious.

In this age of HIV and human pappilomavirus (HPV) which is passed by having many sexual partners the girls risk getting cervical cancer as well.
Ms Betty Makoni, founder and chief executive officer of Girl Child Network Worldwide, said it was unfortunate that the education system was not meeting the educational needs especially given the vulnerability of the girl child.

“Given the situation of girls forced into sex as payback for university fees and accommodation, I call upon Government and the donor community to make education for young women a priority. The idea of supporting girls through primary and secondary school is to ensure they reach their full potential as women leaders. We are reversing the gains and exposing young lives to HIV and Aids,” said Ms Makoni.

“I have personally interacted with young women via social media and I must say this another generation of young women lost to poverty which we fought so hard to stop.

“On our part we have started mobilising young women leaders to form a national committee so that they speak to Government and donors with one voice. Any young women are encouraged to join in the committee. A lot of times victims of poverty let it go to the deep end because they are not organised enough to challenge the status quo,” said Ms Makoni.

“With the indigenisation policy coming into Zimbabwe my plea is that the national committee for young women to end poverty and violence be given platforms to present their educational needs.

“To prevent HIV and Aids we deal with the causes and one of them is lack of educational support.
“The situation for girls in this situation is worrying and the pain and suffering is too much,” said Ms Makoni speaking from her base in the United Kingdom.

The cycle of poverty sees girls giving away their pride in return for an education.
As evidenced by the plight of the two young women highlighted above, they promise to help young women facing hardships when they get employment.

“After graduating and getting a job, even if it means I will take up a temporary teaching post, I will help out a needy girl with upkeep in university or better still have one under my roof. Irwendo remutambidzanwa. I will play my part so will Precious, we have committed to do that,” said Runyararo.
Runyararo said after getting infected with an STI, they have stood their ground and now have protected sex.

Who knows it could be a matter of getting under the umbrella after a storm, a moment too late.

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