I met Princess and her 3 younger brothers
when we were visiting squatters near a town called Plumtree in Zimbabwe. Princess is 10 years old. She and her family live under a rubbish bag propped up on sticks.
They have very little. The only clothes they have are the ones you can see, and because their "house" is so
small and flimsy, they cook outside on an open fire. Only 1 of the school-age kids goes to school, because the cost of education is so high.
Princess has to look after her family during the week, because her mother works as a maid, and only comes home at weekends, while their father also works to make money in whatever ways he can, while trying to build a more permanent dwelling for his family.
Despite their poverty, they are actually some of the luckier squatters. When Mugabe destroyed slums in the city, residents were told to choose a rural area, any rural area, and then were driven out in trucks and dumped in thos spots. Many were not accepted by local cheifs (most of which are pro-ZanuPf), and so were forced to move on, and those squatters are unable to create a good life for themselves. Princess' family, whilst facing extremely harsh conditions, and having very little, have been accepted by the local cheif, and as such have been able to start setting up a proper home, by growing veggies and raising chicken, and with their father working on making bricks to build a home.