Zimbabwe’s government undertook a survey in 2023 to ascertain how many children were living on the streets of the country’s second-biggest city, Bulawayo. The most recent numbers were from a similar 2015 survey, the Ministry of Public Service, Labour, and Welfare told reporters – and, in the intervening eight years, it was clear that many more children had ended up on Bulawayo’s streets. The situation is similar in the capital city, Harare; in July 2024 it was reported that some “rowdy street kids” were robbing people in the city center.

The phenomenon of children living and working on the streets is not a uniquely Zimbabwean problem.

Accurate figures are hard to come by: in 1989 Unicef put the estimated global population of street children at 100 million; it gave the same estimate in 2002 and 2005. More recent figures suggest that as many as one in five of the world’s children are living or working on the streets. (There are about 2 billion children aged between 0 and 14 in the world.) The lack of reliable figures shows that this is a hidden population. They are mobile and often unnoticed by others.

There are many reasons that children choose to leave their homes and attempt to make a living on the streets. These include their basic needs, like adequate food and shelter, not being met, neglect by their families, and a desire to support themselves or their families.

However the situation has been made worse in Zimbabwe by several factors. The country’s decades-long economic crisis saw the national poverty rate hit 72% in 2019. Millions of Zimbabweans go hungry each day, a situation worsened by climate-induced shocks.

Life on the streets leaves children vulnerable to extreme weather, like cold spells and heat waves, as well as violence and diseases. Since most children drop out of school either before or when they leave home, they also lose out on opportunities to learn, develop, and ultimately better their circumstances. Schooling is a sort of social vaccine against a number of ills.

Many scholars consider family reunification the best way to help vulnerable children such as those living on the streets. Researchers argue that it’s necessary to identify and solve the problems that lead to separation and provide proper support to the family. Studies have shown that children are more likely to return to the streets if their families haven’t been supported.

However, many governments across Africa take the view that family reunification involves nothing more than returning children to their homes.

I am a psychology scholar with a focus on child development. With several colleagues, NGOs, and government representatives, I set out to test a different approach to family reunification. We worked with children, parents, and guardians who were going through a reunification process to help them build resilience. The process strengthened family bonds, provided children with both livelihood and schooling opportunities – and, ultimately, means there’s less chance that they’ll return to life on the streets.