affected by the operation.107 The Child Protection Working Group consisting of local and international organizations working with children, also expressed concern that a number of children, who became separated from their families during the evictions, were being held in institutions, including those normally used to hold children in conflict with the law.108 Child headed households in the high density urban areas were also affected by the evictions. Mable sixteen: I was living in Tafara with my six younger brother and sisters. Our parents died in 2002. We were renting a cabin and it was demolished and now we are living on a farm. We have built a temporary structure there. It is made of plastic sheeting and some cardboard. Before we used to survive by selling freezes (ice lollies) and vegetables but now we are just living without anything to do. We are now eating food we were given by well wishers sometime ago. No one has visited the farm to help us. It’s now been a week since we were evicted.109 Despite the difficulties in school enrolment due to families relocating in the aftermath of the evictions, a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)-led UN assessment of the impact of the evictions found that 90 percent of children affected by Operation Murambatsvina remained in school.110 However, Human Rights Watch interviewed a number of victims who were unable to keep their children in school. Beatrice, a mother of three children from Rugare, is now unable to pay for her children to attend school: Last Saturday the police came and told us to destroy the cabin I was renting out. I was a landlady and my livelihood was destroyed. I have a boy in Form Four and another in Form Three while another is in Grade Six. Now I can’t afford to send my children to school because I can’t afford the transport. My husband died a long time ago and I was renting 107 UN Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to Assess the Scope and Impact of Operation Murambatsvina, July 22, 2005. Submission to the United Nations Special Envoy, “Concerns about the impact of “Operation Clean-up” on children,” June 27, 2005. 108 109 Human Rights Watch interview, Harare, June 25, 2005. UNICEF press release, “Against odds, Zimbabweans keep their children in school,” August 23, www. unicef.org/media/media_28025.html. 110 27