Situation five: Rural district, Matabeleland North 2 women, a mother in her 70s and her daughter in her 50s, both widows Originally from Killarney informal settlement In October, the older widow was in a state of deep mourning, having had to cope with her dying daughter throughout the process of displacement and dumping. She had had to nurse and then bury her daughter in this strange community. She was left raising two grandchildren aged 8 and 13. Her daughter (interviewee two), also a widow supporting a child, had been battling to establish a homestead in another part of the same district, and had been offered two derelict huts. Update June 2006 Interviewee one: the elderly mother now has a stand on which to build her own homestead, and she has a piece of land to cultivate her own crops. However, as an old woman on her own, she has no resources whatsoever to develop the plots at this time. She cannot chop down trees or cut thatching at her age. She cannot build a fence around a field, or plough or plant it all on her own, and has no resources to hire labour. She has maize seed from the churches, which she could not plant in this last season, as she had no land or capacity to plant at that time. She has received no assistance from any other group. She has been finding piece jobs in the rural areas to earn some mealie-meal or other basic supplies. This old lady is now effectively cheap labour to the community, who will weed or do other tasks in return for a meal. She has been living in the homestead of another old lady who is a relative. The two grandchildren she inherited when her daughter died she has had to send away, as she could not look after them. The thirteen-year-old grandson has gone to live with his aunt, interviewee two, living in another part of the district. He is not going to school for economic reasons. The eight-year-old granddaughter has been sent to relatives in some other district – she is also out of school. Interviewee two: she is the daughter of the other widow and is herself a widow. During the 2005/6 season, she did manage to cultivate some crops but they were entirely destroyed by cattle, as she had no fence around the field. She had no resources to build one before she planted. She will harvest nothing. Life is very tough for her, as she has no regular source of income. She has also resorted to being cheap labour to the neighbours. Her fourteen-year-old granddaughter has returned to Killarney to live with family members there. They have had no help or support from anyone, they have no relatives who are capable of taking care of them. They do not have the energy or the courage to return to town at this stage. The experience of the demolitions and then being dumped in this district was very traumatic and they are afraid that if they go back to town, they risk a repeat of this experience. At their ages, they feel they cannot survive going through this again. However they are not happy and are not coping. They are appealing for assistance, as they cannot survive where they are. 60