Resilience Strategies of Street Children of Harare Central Business District, Zimbabwe, in the Face of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Abstract The article interrogates the resilience of street children of Harare Central Business District in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The resilience theory was adopted to understand and interpret how these children managed to cope with the debilitating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to have a deeper understanding of the resilience of the street children of the Harare Central Business District in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, a qualitative research methodology was used to generate data for this study. The research findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic brought huge suffering among street children when the Government of Zimbabwe announced a total lock down on 30 March 2020 for 21 days. The street children struggled to survive as most of their livelihood activities were brought to a halt. As a result, they resorted to a number of strategies: stealing, robbing, sex work, drug, substance abuse, support from the government, religious group, and non-governmental organisation. The article concludes by recommending for establishment of child protection in emergency structures that include and embrace special constituencies such as children in street situations.