The Raising Children on the Streets: Tales from Street Vending Mothers in the Harare Central Business District

Abstract

This study presents day-to-day experiences of street-vending mothers in the Harare Central Business District (HCBD) who go to work with their children as young as under the age of five. The study adopts a qualitative approach where 30 street vending mothers were identified and interviewed from five vending sites in the HCBD. The interviews were triangulated with observations since they were conducted at the women’s vending sites where their daily routines were observed. The study indicates that vending street mothers experience a myriad of challenges, ranging from physical to mental and economic, in their quest to earn a living as street vendors. The major challenge identified by vending mothers in the study is their concern about their children’s welfare, which they believe is compromised by spending most of their time on the streets where they are exposed to foul language; disease outbreaks and other physical accidents they are prone to due to the environment they spend the day in. Moreover, the women bemoan the harassment they experienced at the hands of local authorities given that they are operating as illegal vendors. The vending mothers also reported that they hardly make enough to cater for their economic needs. Their situation was exacerbated by the advent of COVID-19 when lockdown measures to combat the spread of the virus negatively affected informal sector activities. Regardless of the challenges reported by these participants, the numbers of people, especially NGENGANI VOL. 4(1), 2025 47 women who engage in street vending, continues to rise due to the country’s unrelenting economic woes. From the study findings it is therefore recommended that measures should be taken to make street vending sustainable for those who engage it as a means of livelihood and to protect children of street vending mothers so that they can also have a normal childhood.