Wife and daughter stayed only for one month, then moved to rural home about 40km away because of lack of privacy at the house Situation: one two-roomed building destroyed on site, another one elsewhere in Bulawayo; first 19, later 17 people on 20m2 in 3 rooms: 1,1 and then 1,18m2 per person; Massive overcrowding, considerably worse than before. The husband who sent his wife and daughter to stay with her parents in a rural area last visited them during the Christmas holidays, as they could not be accommodated in Bulawayo; for him to stay at his in-laws place is very inappropriate according to local tradition. The newly-weds both expressed that they felt bad about not being able to share a room. They cannot move elsewhere as they are unemployed and cannot raise rentals for separate accommodation. An opportunity was created for them to sleep together in December 2005 when the couple with the 1-y-old daughter slept in another high density suburb for a few days to attend to an ill relative there. Case example IV: child-headed household Background Information Thandi is 15 years old. Her father died in 1996, her mother in 2002. In January 2006, she was staying with her fifty-five-year-old maternal grandmother and two younger sisters at a Bulawayo high density suburb. Thandi dropped out of school in 2005, when she was in form two, because of lack of money. Their source of livelihood is making mats, which they sell. Thandi’s story In July 2005, police destroyed the backyard structure in which Thandi, her younger sisters and grandmother lived. They had no other place to go to, so stayed in the very same place, living and sleeping in the open. It was very cold at that time. After one week, the owner of the house decided to put up some shelter in the backyard. When interviewed at the end of 2005, the family was living under a very makeshift shelter of wood and a sheet of asbestos roofing. Thandi remembers that her 12-year-old sister talked to her grandmother and requested permission to go to South Africa to look for work, to be able to support the family. The grandmother did not consent, but the girl went anyway to talk to a local man who takes illegal border jumpers to South Africa. She then disappeared and later phoned from South Africa to say that she had found a job: she was working now for relatives of the local man who had taken her to South Africa. However, she also complained that she was not being paid. Supposedly she worked without pay for four months. Then her grandmother went to complain to the local man who promised to look into the matter. When next he came back from South Africa, he said that Thandi’s sister was lying and that she was being paid. The granny was bitter and demanded that he should bring her back, but when he returned again, he reported that the girl had died. He claimed that she had been knocked down by a car on 4 December 2005. The grandmother was devastated and cried a lot. She then went to South Africa to bury her granddaughter. At the time of the interview she was still there, trying to get a death certificate. Thandi aged 15 has been in charge of the household since December and stays with her youngest sister who is 10 years old. She is quite bitter and says, “I wish my father was alive so that I could lead a normal life like all other children.” Asked what her wishes are, she says that 48