It is very important to bear in mind, when thinking about the consequences for children, that this violence against teachers, and especially the violence that takes place at schools, will be witnessed by young children. Given that most violence takes place in rural areas, that most schools are in the rural areas, and that most schools are primary schools, with children ranging in age from 5 to 12 years the likelihood of them experiencing violence is great. It is also important to stress that, apart from explicit violence, threats, intimidation, being forced to listen to hate speech, and being aware that there can be severe consequences for not being part of the “correct” social (political party) group creates an atmosphere of fear and stress that is also inimical to healthy child development. It is also important to add to this picture the oft-reported attacks on families in their homes, particularly in rural areas. Here it must be remembered that both schools and homes are typically, and necessarily, places of safety for children, and hence the understanding that impairing this nexus can have long-term disabling effects on children. Many reports indicate the extent of such attacks on citizens in their homes, and it is highly probable that these attacks were at the least witnessed by children, frequently led to families becoming severely impoverished as a consequence of houses being burned and goods and livestock stolen, and equally frequently leading to families becoming internally displaced. The point being made here is that the type of climate created during elections creates insecurity in children, and, since violence can be experienced and witnessed at both home and school, provides no places of safety for them10. The major question here (which cannot be answered on available evidence) is the extent of the harm that has been caused, but, whatever the extent of the harm; the effects on children can be envisioned with some certainty. What follows is an attempt to at least quantify the risks using data from the past decade. It will not be possible to provide any estimate of the consequences of these risks for children, but at least specifying the probable risks will allow some estimate of the scale of the needed response for Zimbabwean children. 2. Methodology Since there is no good data on the effects of electoral violence on children available, we drew on the published reports on political violence in the past decade. The best public source available is the Political Monthly Violence Reports of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (the “Human Rights Forum”), that published monthly reports from July 2001 until December 2008. This gives a total of 90 reports, which covered over 40,000 violations, which may involve many more people than this, but, since the Human Rights Forum data only reports violations, it is not possible to assess the number of people involved in these violations. The data used in this analysis has considerable face validity since they are derived from case reports in which the victims giving their stories had these attested through medical and psychological examination (and treatment) and gave statements to lawyers. Thus, the trends have at the least, on more than face value, a basis in valid and reliable information. All reports were read carefully, and each individual case report was examined in order to determine whether it fitted one of the three categories below. Cases that did not conform to these categories were excluded from the analysis. The three categories were as follows:  10 Violations in which children were directly mentioned as being present or were victims themselves. This turned out to be 103 cases; For a brief analysis of the possible consequences for education and children’s well-being, see Pswarayi, L, & Reeler, A.P (2102), „Fragility‟ and education in Zimbabwe: Assessing the impact of violence on education. December 2012, HARARE: RESEARCHA & ADVOCACY UNIT. 7