Many of the women evictees Human Rights Watch interviewed were renting out cottages and cabins and selling vegetables as a means of survival. They informed Human Rights Watch that as part of a drive to empower women in the 1990s, the government encouraged widows and divorced women to build and rent out cabins in their back yards as a means of survival.99 As one woman told Human Rights Watch, “The government told us that the power is in our hands, that the land is ours and that we should build where we want to build.”100 Priscilla, a sixty-year-old widow with one daughter and two grandchildren lived in her own cottage with her family. When her house was destroyed during the evictions, she ended up sleeping out in the streets until her family was given refuge in a church: We were all living together in Mbare in a cottage. I was in Bulawayo for a wedding. I came back on Monday and found people demolishing their cabins and cottages and then I was told that a notice came on Friday telling people to demolish their properties. Riot police were there in their numbers and they were beating people and forcing people to demolish their cottages. Since I was away, I found my nineteen-year-old grandson doing it alone. They were shouting at us to quickly demolish the house. There was no time to look after the property. I am not working but my daughter is working. She is a cleaner. We came to the church. People were sleeping outside under a tree. People were looking for lorries to carry their luggage and belongings. Some managed to find transport and went. There was havoc because the riot police were going around checking to see if we had demolished the houses. They wanted it razed the ground and told us to get rid of the rubble and were forcing people to burn the wooden planks. We were told to break down bricks into small pieces. Elderly people were forced to demolish the cabins in their backyard. People were sleeping outside including newborn babies. People were gathering together in groups. The police said they didn’t want people to gather. They told us to disappear back to our rural homes or they would take us to a farm somewhere in Goromonzi. We are staying in the church but we are desperate. The church is not an 99 Human Rights Watch interviews, Harare, June 2005. 100 Human Rights Watch interview, Harare, June 25, 2005. 23