ActionAid International - Combined Harare Residents’ Association - A Study on the impact of “Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order” 3.1.1.3 Elderly headed households Approximately 12% of household heads surveyed in the study are above 60 years. There were more male heads of households compared to female heads (62% vs. 38%, respectively). The mean age of elderly headed households was 68 years (with a range of 60 to 89 years). 3.1.1.4 Child headed households Only 1% (142) of total homesteads visited were headed by children (below 18 years). The youngest household head recorded was 12 years with a mean age of 15 years. Of the 1% noted, 62% were headed by girls and the remainder by boys. 3.1.1.5 Women headed households Close to half (44%) of the homestead visited were female headed households (of these 14% were widows). Information pertaining to this category has been captured earlier. The mean size of households was almost the same for female headed households compared to male headed households (5.7 and 5.8, respectively). 3.1.1.6 Multiple vulnerability Any particular household can be in from none to all five of the vulnerable household categories above (this is refereed to as multiple vulnerability categories or compound vulnerability). For example, an elderly female head of household with chronically ill household members and hosting Table 4: Vulnerability categories orphans would be in all four categories. Likewise, a 45 year old Category Proportions in vulnerable male-headed household with no categories orphans or chronically ill members Category 1 15% would not appear in any of the Category 2 31% vulnerable categories. Households, Category 3 39% whose head is young, for example Category 4 11% under 16 years of age, are also Category 5 4% vulnerable. Therefore, the report explores this aspect and tries to explicitly show multiple vulnerability and the categories. Table depicts the vulnerable categories that most households fall into from the sample. Information gathered shows that women headed households and child headed households are more likely to fall into two or more other vulnerable categories. This clearly demonstrates that these two strata probably felt most of the impact of the Operation. 3.1.1.6 Education The pooled Harare data set provides a rare opportunity to explore school attendance and dropout rates for areas affected by the Operation. Education is a good measure of the vulnerability primarily of children and secondarily for the family. School attendance in Zimbabwe is normally high. It is unfortunate that detailed information pertaining to age categories and grades was not collected to give a clear representation of the impact of the Operation. However, from the information solicited from the respondents, some clear observations are made. Out of 14,137 sampled households, 22% of them reported that children were not attending school as a direct result of the Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order. Children in women headed households seem to have been affected slightly more compared to male headed households with 24% versus 20%, 7