FACULTY OF APPLIED SOCIAL SCEINCES

DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

COMMUNICATION TO STUDENTS & ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS

PART A: NOTIFICATION

1. Core Contact Persons

Regional Programme Coordinators

Regional Campus Name Email Cell

Harare Mrs. Kaseke, K. [email protected] +263772489706

Masvingo Prof. Musingafi, M. [email protected] +263775162748

Midlands Mr. Dewa, D. [email protected] +263774387011

Bulawayo Mr. Guzura, T. [email protected] +263773282626

Matabeleland North Mr. Moyo, W. [email protected] +263774568910

Matabeleland South Mr. Samanyanga, I. [email protected] +263776577031

Mashonaland West Ms. Zebron, S. [email protected] +263773920028

Mashonaland Central Mr. Masvaure, M. [email protected] +263778803202

Mashonaland East Ms. Rugonye, S. [email protected] +263772929169

Manicaland Mr. Duru, G. [email protected] +263773030418

National Centre
National Centre Mr. Mutsau, S. [email protected] +263777604347
National Centre Dr. Tom, T. [email protected] +263772974493

*Call during working hours.

2. Take note of the following:

1. Make sure you are registered for the correct courses. If you are not sure, request assistance
from your Regional Programme Coordinator.
2. Know your Regional Programme Coordinator for future assistance.
3. A zero is awarded to a plagiarised assignment.
4. Late submissions may not be marked.
5. If you do not understand the question, get help from your lecturer or Regional Programme
Coordinator before you write the assignment.
6. Make sure your online submission is confirmed before you log off.
7. A wrong submission is graded zero.
8. Do not submit your assignment in pdf form.
9. Students who copy each other are graded zero and sent for disciplinary action.
10. You can get assistance during anytime of your studies through your lecturers and
coordinators (*consult during appropriate times).
11. If you find anything amiss on your coursework, communicate to the regional programme
coordinator immediately
12. Report any unfair treatment and abuse to Student Services or your Regional Programme
Coordinator, Regional Director at your region.
13. Report abuse to Student Services.
14. You are not allowed to pay any ZOU staff for any services like tutorials, consultations etc.
Report that to the authorities if you happen to be asked to pay for anything apart from your
fees.
15. If you find yourself not getting assistance form the responsible people at your region,
please report to the chairperson for assistance.
16. For all registration and fees payment issues, contact the regional administrator/accounts
unit at your region of registration. You may request for assistance from your Regional
Programme Coordinator.
17. Seek advice from your Regional Programme Coordinator on deferment, postponement of
studies, approval letter for work related learning and fieldwork, and relates aspects.
18. Use learning resources on MyVista (videos, audios, notes, quiz etc) in addition to modules
and tutorial letters.
19. Seek assistance from the regional librarian to access ebrary in addition to hard copy
learning materials.
 By downloading and attempting assignments, I have read and understood the above
notice.

PART B: ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS

Assignment 1

Article Review

Read the HERALD article covering the Covid-19 lockdown teen pregnancies, school dropouts.in
Manicaland province. As a development practitioner, bearing in mind that research is intended to
come up with interventions that resolve problems, present a prototype of a research proposal on
the issues surrounding the child prostitution problem in Epworth that will be presented to
UNICEF for funding.

Roselyn Sachiti Features, Health & Society Editor

Tackling Covid-19 lockdown teen pregnancies, school dropouts

Zimbabwe entered the year 2021 by going into a second lockdown necessitated by increased
cases of Covid-19. In March 2020, the prevalence of the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the country
into its first lockdown, altering the way people live and congregate. Barely fully recovered from
the first lockdown, which brought with it a lot of life-changing situations for many, the second
phase is a learning curve and an opportunity to address gaps in areas where women and young
girls were affected. During the first lockdown, a lot happened in terms of access to sexual and
reproductive health and rights (SRHR), maternal health, gender-based violence (GBV).

For instance, at least 415 school going girls dropped out of exam classes in Manicaland province
alone during the Covid-19 lockdown period mainly due to marriage and pregnancy. Only five
boys dropped out of school for marital reasons in the province. This is worrying given that these
statistics are only for a single province. The countrywide picture could be scarier. Cases of GBV
also skyrocketed during the first lockdown.

A report entitled “Violence Against Women and Girls During the Covid-19 Crisis in
Zimbabwe”, gathered data from five non-governmental organisations working with survivors of
gender-based violence, including the Musasa Project, the Adult Rape Clinic and the Zimbabwe
Women Lawyers Association.

The report, among other things, notes that cases of physical violence went up by 38,5 percent
during April and May 2020. “The increase in help-seeking could be due to increased incidence of
violence, increased severity of violence, or the inability to use alternative options for escaping
violence such as going to stay with relatives,” the report notes.

Reports of emotional violence over the same period were up by 80 percent. This represented the
sharpest rise during the lockdown, “possibly due to heightened household tensions resulting from
confined living conditions and increased financial stress”. With such information, and with the
latest lockdown, the question is, what are the lessons learned from what happened during the first
lockdown? How can these be addressed?

Shamwari Yemwanasikana director Ekenia Chifamba said in their line of work, regulations and
restrictions put in place resulted in girls and young women falling victim to different
vulnerabilities.

“There was a rise in GBV cases in the homes as people were now restricted in their homes
trapped with their abusers. Restrictive barriers to access to SRHR and maternal services
continued to be a detrimental problem,” she said.
Noticing this, said Chifamba, Shamwari Yemwanasikana together with other civil society
organisations learnt of the need to ensure flexibility and adaptability of the workforce in cases of
emergencies and disasters that affect the normal day-to-day operations.

“Multi-stakeholder engagement became vital in ensuring that clients continue to receive holistic
assistance in cases of abuse as well as need of humanitarian assistance. Moreover, there is need
to continue sensitising communities and advocating against GBV through embracing online
campaigns to address such emerging issues,” she said.

According to Chifamba, it is of paramount importance that organisations have helplines that are
specifically used for inquiries and clarification on cases of abuse as well as where one can get
assistance given the prevailing conditions.

“In order to ensure that less girls drop out of school as a result of pregnancies, there is need to
embrace online dialogues (virtual Dandaro Revasikana) on SRHR so as to ensure that every girl
child is empowered with sufficient information and makes informed decisions,” she noted.

Additionally, Chifamba said, as noted during the first lockdown, most of the unintended
pregnancies were as a result of idleness, hence caregivers in partnership with various
organisations should ensure that the teenage adolescents are occupied with school work and
other relevant work that keeps them busy so as to lessen their vulnerability to early sexual debut.

“Moreover, with many of the girls not having much knowledge about the law that protects them
in cases of sexual abuse and the reporting mechanisms which further affects their capacities to
act and respond to abuses thus they remain in silence. In turn this has allowed perpetrators to
remain scotch free,” she explained.

Chifamba bemoaned how failure to timely report sexual abuse cases continues to increase girls
risk of getting infected of STIS, HIV and AIDS as well as conceiving avoidable pregnancies.

“Thus, the need to work with the lawmakers so that the arm of the law does not spare all those
who violate the rights of the girl in question and others who publicly harass the girl child,” she
suggested.

Having learnt lessons during the first lockdown, she said, Shamwari YeMwanasikana has
officers physically on the ground working under the Girls Protection and Support Services,
offering assistance in cases of possible and occurred GBV.

The officers are also offering online services such as psychosocial support as well as legal aid to
alleviate the possibility of sky-rocketing GBV cases.

“Online awareness campaigns remain a priority as officers engage girls, boys, women and men
of the need to prevent GBV in communities during the lockdown period.
“A particular case in point is of the Girl Rights Movement who get educated so that they not only
know how to identify GBV but also advocate against it for other peers. Thus, our helpline
remains functional during the prevalence of the pandemic to ensure that clients and survivors can
access assistance without physical movement.”

Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) executive director, Itai Rusike, said reaching
out to young people with SRHR information and services during the first lockdown was not easy
due to the travel restrictions and growing fear of going to health facilities due to the risk of
infection.

As such, he said, there is need for new innovative ways to engaging and mobilising.

“There is need to address the water and electricity issues for young people to be able to follow
the lockdown guidelines as most of the girls had to leave their homes to look for water and
firewood and this exposes them to sexual gender-based violence (SGBV),” said Rusike.

While gains have been made towards gender equality, he noted, there are structural barriers that
continue to stop women from accessing services that keep women and girls at heightened risk
and experiencing inequalities. He concurred that to reduce girls dropping out of school, there is
need to keep girls occupied, encourage online learning and engagements.

“There’s need to ensure that girls and young people have access to SRHR information and
services during the lockdown period.

“We need to address the water and electricity issue so that girls do not spend so much time out of
the house,” he said.

Rusike added the need to ensure that all the interventions related to Covid-19 address the
unequal impact on women’s rights and well-being, including the alarming increases in GBV, and
the diminished access to sexual and reproductive health services.

“Community health workers (CHWs) are trusted sources of information for community literacy
and should support with contact tracing for Covid-19,” he said.

“CHWs continues up to this day to augment the work being done by the mainstream health
sector, raising awareness, giving health advice, monitoring growth of children under five years,
mobilising communities during outreach programs and for immunisation.”

Your proposal must cover the following areas:

(a) Title (5)

(b) Background to the study (30)

(c) Statement of the problem (10)

(d) Research Aim (5)

(e) Research objectives (10)

(f) Research questions (10)

(g) Justification of the study (15)

(I) Reference (15)

Total (100 marks)

Please Note:

(a) Read tutorials 1, A to F on aspects of post graduate academic studies on my vista all the
time.

(b) Read the whole module first before doing assignment

(c) fully substantiate your motivation with valid evidence from case studies

(d) credit id given for clear, logical and illustrative submissions

(e) If you do not understand the question please ask for help we will help you.

3000 words (excluding references, double spaced font 12 Times New Roman)

NB. Plagiarism is a punishable offence that may result in disqualification of the work. Please
avoid it.