she wishes to go back to school, grow up and be able to look after her grandmother. She also says,” If I was like other girls, I could have a baby now, but I don’t want that, I want to grow and be able to look after my grandmother.” Prostitution is not an option for her; this has never crossed her mind, she says - contradicting herself by raising the issue. Summary of findings In the two suburbs from which our samples were drawn, the Zimbabwean Government has not destroyed slums, but valuable living space. Contrary to their declared intention to force people out of town and ‘back to their rural areas’, this has had one major effect: Massive urban overcrowding, leading to the following: 98 • A need to shift around on almost a daily basis within one house. 99 • A need for some displaced, in particular single tenants, to stay on the move from place to place. 100 • Pressure on individuals to join the Diaspora, thus dividing family units.101 • Knock-on effects with evictees displacing other people, and those displacing others again (case examples I, II, III) • Unmarried men and women forced to share rooms, and married couples forced to sleep separately at night. 102 • Deterioration in school performance or dropping out of school; while staying put on the same premises has enabled some children to continue going to the same school, overcrowding has reduced space for doing homework or studying, or sleeping well. Increased poverty from loss of rent and /or vending income has resulted in school dropouts because fees are not paid.103 98 All examples following are taken from our survey findings. For example: in a two-roomed house, the bedroom is occupied by husband and wife, the lounge by 4 evictees of both sexes, between 10 and 24 years of age; when adult visitors stay over night, all regroup such that males occupy one room, females the other. 100 For example: of an evicted family of six, only 4 found accommodation in the main house; their 20-y-old moves from one friend to the next, in Bulawayo, his brother has been re-admitted to Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital (it remains unclear whether his condition deteriorated too much to keep him at home [related to the family’s eviction?], or if his family was desperate to reduce overcrowding for a while). 101 For example: young adults, but even family heads separate from their families to go to South Africa or Botswana, e.g., a single mother with three children (11, 15 and 17 years old) first displaced her uncle’s family of three from the main house; next, she began to commute in and out of South Africa, to earn a living for her family (no more rent from single room main house; reduced income from vending vegetables). 102 For example: a mother of two (7 and 3 years old) who occupied one room in the main house, shares now with 2 evicted male relatives (21 and 30 years old). In case example III, the newly-wed husband had to chose between having his young wife share a room with him, his uncle and two brothers, or with his married brother, the brother’s wife and two young girls. 103 For example: 12 people, including 7 school children, on 27m2 (2.25m2 per person) is not an ideal situation to start with; influx of another family of five, with 3 children (12, 7, and 3 years of age) makes things even worse: 17 people, including 9 school children, squeeze on 27m2 (1.59m2 per person). In another case, one school girl and 11 school boys (from Primary School to College level) now share 27m2 with their grandmother (2.08m2 per person); before the evictions, the old lady cared for 7 children, giving them 3.38m2 of living space per person. 99 49