Nicholas is a 9 year old boy who was brought to the JCF by Social Welfare in 2004. His parents divorced and he went to stay with his father. Nicholas health was not very good and as a result his father took him to the rural areas to stay with his paternal grandparents and there he was able to access treatment. When the grandfather passed away Nicholas came back to Harare to stay with his father and stepmother.The stepmother refused to look after Nicholas and told the father to get rid of him. The father subsequently took the child away and waited until dark and took the child to a particular river and tied a piece of wire with a rock around the child’s neck and tied him to a tree and left him in the river to drown and die. The boy had a bag full of clothes on his back. A passerby heard the boy crying and went and rescued him. She took the child home with her to warm him up and then reported the case to the police, who in turn took him to Social Welfare. That is how he came to JCF.
The father was arrested six mother later. We stayed with Nicholas for a year when he was taken to hospital for treatment and counseling. The JCF looked for the mother and she was found in Chitungwiza a town 25km from Harare. A relationship was established with the mother and the boy was finally reunited with his mother. The case went to court and the father was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour. The boy is now in grade 2 and is happy with his mother. We always follow up to see how he is doing.