By Nicholas Aribino and Cyprian Muchemwa
The corporatization and commercialization of play through outdoor recreational facilities has come with a heavy price for the wholesome growth and development of young children, because the former and the latter are not natural for the children as they are structured and experienced through crowded spaces. Naturally, children have a natural inclination towards play and play for children is critical in shaping them into well-rounded children. This opinion piece seeks to interrogate developmental projects that are taking place within Zimbabwe without any regard for creating recreational facilities for young children.
Zimbabwe is witnessing a spurt of new suburbs like gated communities and high-density areas. The new suburbs or locations do not have any spaces for the recreation of children. According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (1989) Article 3 (1), “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, a court of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration.” By extension, the best interest of the child should always guide any designing, planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of any programme or project. Over and above that, the voice of the child (UNCRC Article, 12) should always be heard in matters that concern them. It is indeed as clear as a bell that those responsible for planning on having new residential suburbs in Zimbabwe are violating the children’s best interest, participation rights and the right of children to play (UNCRC Article, 31) as it is evidential that recent developments of human settlements have been developed without any play centres or recreational facilities for children. When children get an opportunity to play, they are either taken by their parents / guardians to food courts where, in some cases they can be allowed to use play facilities after having bought some food items, or they would have been taken to braaing (gochi-gochi) spaces where spaces for play have been considered for them. Within their crowded gated communities and high-density suburbs children are routinely seen playing football or netball along the roads, a situation which may give rise to road accidents.
Those who are responsible for land banks and parcelling out land for the development of housing units in both urban and rural local authorities should at least have some working knowledge of the importance of play for children. Every piece of land that should be considered for human settlement should also appropriate spaces for recreational facilities for children. Similarly, new schools that are mushrooming should also have play grounds for children. When the right to play for children is trampled upon because of lack of spaces for play children may not experience wholesome development in the social, psychomotor, moral, cognitive, affective and spiritual domains. The right to play for children is as important as the right to health care, education, food and water because through play children learn about relationship skills, empathy, leadership skills, sharing, tolerance, acceptance and understanding of human differences. To deny children the right to play is akin to robbing them off a healthy future that would ideally help them to live harmoniously with others.
The outcry regarding drug abuse in Zimbabwe may be attributed to lack of recreational facilities. When children and youths find themselves with nothing to do, without any opportunities for recreation they may even resort to experimenting with drugs. Idle minds are indeed the devil ‘s laboratory. Zimbabweans love soccer and netball generally, and they expect to excel in the former and the latter but surprisingly they have not created spaces for children to horn their skills in soccer and netball. The government of Zimbabwe has a duty of care to ensure that as local authorities parcel out land for human settlement there should be spaces that should be fenced off for play. Any housing developments that come without any widespread benefits for children and the youths should be condemned. Development should come with a human face, and this human face should prize a personal touch for children’s play. The writers of this opinion piece have observed developing housing units in Dzivarasekwa Extension where there are crowded match box houses that have neither play nor parking spaces for cars; this should be lampooned because the crowded dwellings create a fertile ground for the use and abuse of children.
This writer strongly believes that professionals that are seized with the development of new housing units like engineers in their various variants should have infused into their training four key principles of the rights of the children as enshrined in the UNCRC (1989) to which our country is a signatory-state namely, the best interest of the child, non-discrimination, participation and growth, survival, growth and development. It is critical that child safeguarding should be central to the designing and planning of human settlements. Children have limited experiences and are also vulnerable, thence the need to ensure that duty bearers become alive to their global needs and rights. Play for children should not just be a concept that is introduced and reinforced at school at the stage of Early Childhood Development (ECD), it is a concept that should be nurtured at home through the creation of safe play spaces in communities. Children develop new vocabulary through play, children learn to accommodate one another through play, children learn turn-taking skills in dialogues through play, children expand, embrace and enhance their understanding of human diversity through play and children learn to be assertive through play. When the professionals responsible for planning new suburbs for human settlement pooh-pooh play, they short change children’s growth and development. Let play be natural for children in their own communities, when play is corporatized and commercialized poor children will miss out on living their childhood to the hilt.
Dr. Cyprian Muchemwa- Lecturer : Department of peace and governance at the Bindura University of
Science Education.
Contact : +263 773429935
Dr. Nicholas Aribino : ZIMCARE Trust Country
Director.
Contact : +263715617095
NB we are writing in our own individual capacities
