Hunger takes toll at Zimbabwe schools

NHWALI, Zimbabwe — As the girls talk about their hunger, they giggle nervously, as girls often do when they talk about themselves. Their grades have plummeted. They fall asleep in class from exhaustion. Often, when they have nothing to eat, they don't bother coming to school.

"Sometimes it's better to stay home than to come and collapse here," said Litsoanelo Moyo, 19, a student at Nhwali secondary school.

Zimbabwe's worst food crisis in a decade has begun to take its toll in places such Nhwali, a village 430 miles southwest of Harare.

Many eat one small meal a day. The poorest are forced to beg for a handful of cornmeal from their neighbors. Child malnutrition has more than doubled to 8 percent.

Teachers and students at the local schools worry about the damage this is doing to the education system.

At the beginning of the year, the school enrolled 450 students. More than 50 have dropped out for three reasons: Their families stole across the border to South Africa; they were forced to help scavenge for food; or their parents could no longer afford the $2 in school fees, said Soneni Dube, the deputy headmaster.

Of the remaining students, about 50 are absent any given day, up from one or two in normal times. Those who come are often too hungry to study.

One girl fainted in class. Teachers gave her food, but she dropped out a few days later.

Over weekend, the schoolgirls talked of their dreams — of being a nurse, a journalist, a flight attendant. But they were more focused on their hunger.

It is noon on a weekend day, and the group she is with has walked between one and six miles to school to hold a study group on the history of Europe's colonization of Africa. Not one has anything more in her stomach than black tea.

The girls used to eat two big meals a day of meat, corn mash and vegetables and a small lunch. Now, when they are lucky, they get two small meals of corn mash and the rabe or spinach they grow in small gardens in their yards. When the government trucks selling corn don't come — and they haven't been to Nhwali for months — they get one meal, sometimes just vegetables.

About 6 million of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people are threatened by a hunger crisis caused by a terrible drought and the government's chaotic land-reform program, which has wounded its agriculture-based economy, according to the World Food Program (WFP).

Nearly 7 million people in five other countries in southern Africa are also at risk of starvation.

WFP head James Morris, who is touring the region to inspect the crisis, appealed Friday for donor nations to increase their contributions to help head off a potential disaster in the region.

The agency, which is delivering 11,000 tons of food a month to Zimbabweans, hopes to increase that to 60,000 tons.

Meanwhile, human-rights groups accuse the government, which sells corn at the fixed price of less than $1 for a 110-pound bag, of refusing to sell grain to opposition supporters and making only sporadic deliveries to opposition strongholds.

The government denies its land-reform policies are to blame for food shortages, saying drought is the sole cause. It also says it is not denying the opposition food.

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Some white Zimbabwe farmers complied with a new deadline yesterday to quit their properties and make way for landless blacks, but police arrested one farmer for failing to deliver his harvested corn to the state grain board.

Jenni Williams, spokeswoman for farm-lobby group Justice for Agriculture (JAG), said it was not clear what police would charge Jim Arrow-Smith with after his arrest at his Harare residence.

JAG Vice Chairman John Worswick earlier said several farmers in Mashonaland West province left their land as the deadline approached but were likely to return.

President Robert Mugabe has ordered 2,900 commercial farmers to quit their land without compensation under a controversial program to seize white-owned farms and hand them over to landless blacks.

Rhetoric of blame is now a white lie (AFRICA, HEAL THYSELF)
The Daily Telegraph ^ | September 3, 2002 | Tim Butcher
"I remember Africa in the 1960s, everyone was filled with high expectations after independence. Forty years on, Africa is a series of kleptocracies, many worse off than they were under colonial rule. Almost all of the common people in relative worse shape to the rest of the world than they were before independence. Africans after 40 years have no one to blame but their own leadership for their problems. The leaders want to deflect blame to the West. The West's not buying it anymore..."

CIA -- The World Factbook -- Zimbabwe

First it was Rhodesia then SA now America paying the price of silence.

-A Capsule History of Southern Africa--

Parallels between Apartheid SA & USA today

South African Crime Report

ZWNEWS.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe
... Books & Videos. Degrees in Violence: Robert Mugabe and the Struggle for Power
In Zimbabwe This book tells the story of Zimbabwe from the hopeful era of ...

MPR Books - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African ...

Title: "Cry, the Beloved Country" - Topics: World/South Africa

-South Africa - The sellout of a nation--

AP has edited this SAPA item:
Here is the item as published by News24 of South Africa:
Hunger takes its toll
Nhwali, Zimbabwe - The girls giggle nervously as they talk about their hunger.
Their grades have plummeted. They fall asleep in class from exhaustion. Often, when they have nothing at all to eat, they don't even bother coming to school.
"Sometimes it's better to stay home than to come and collapse here," said Litsoanelo Moyo, a 19-year-old student at Nhwali secondary school.
Zimbabwe's worst food crisis in a decade has begun to take its toll on the village of Nhwali, 700km southwest of Harare.
Many now eat only one small meal a day. The poorest are forced to beg for a handful of mieliemeal from their neighbours. Child malnutrition has more than doubled to 8 percent.
Damage to education system
And teachers and students at the local schools worry about the damage this is doing to the education system.
At the beginning of the year, the school enrolled 450 students.
More than 50 have dropped out because their families have stolen across the border to South Africa, they were forced to help scavenge for food or their parents no longer could afford the 1 280 Zimbabwean dollars (about $2) in school fees, said Soneni Dube, the deputy headmaster.
Of the remaining students, about 50 are absent on any given day, up from one or two in normal times. Those that come are often too hungry to study.
One girl fainted in the middle of a class. Teachers gave her some food, but she dropped out a few days later.
The schoolgirls talk of their dreams - of being nurses, a journalist, a stewardess.
But they are more fixated on their hunger.
"I used to be fat," laughs Itumeleng Mdlongwa, a petite 17-year-old girl.
It is noon on a weekend day and they have walked between two and 10km to school to hold a study group on the history of Europe's colonisation of Africa. Not one of them has anything more in her stomach than black tea.
The girls used to eat two hearty meals a day of meat, mielie mash and vegetables and a small lunch. Now, when they are lucky, they get two small meals of corn mash and the rabe or spinach they grow in small gardens in their yards.
When the government trucks selling mielies don't come for a while - and they haven't been to Nhwali for months - they get only one meal, sometimes just vegetables.
Grades have plunged
Nontokoza Moyo (16) passed six subjects last term. Now she is only passing three.
"When I'm reading, I sleep," she said. "We don't normally concentrate much these days."
Dube is worried that his teachers are at risk of falling through the cracks in the shaky food delivery system. They are too wealthy to get food aid and are not official residents of any of the cluster of nearby villages, so never make it onto the lists to buy scarce government grain.
"Even if we have the money, we don't have the grain to buy," he said. "Morale is very low. Very, very low."
An estimated 6 million of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people are threatened by a hunger crisis caused by a terrible drought and the government's chaotic land reform program, which has badly wounded its agriculture-based economy, according to the World Food Programme.
The WFP, which is currently delivering 11 000 tons a month to Zimbabweans, hopes to increase that to 60 000 tons. They predict the situation will get much worse in the coming months.
Meanwhile, human rights groups accuse the government - which sells corn at the fixed price of Z$ 555 Zimbabwean (less than &1) for a 50kg - of refusing to sell grain to opposition supporters and making only sporadic deliveries to opposition strongholds.
When WFP head James Morris arrived in Nhwali to inspect the distribution of mielies, an unprecedented seven government trucks filled with bags of mielies for sale rolled up, the first time since July that even one truck has arrived to feed the 9 000 people in the area, deep in opposition territory. [emphasis mine - Clive]
Janet Siziba, a 73-year-old widow, waits in line with money she has borrowed from a kind neighbour to buy mielies to feed herself, her grandson, his wife and their two children.
She and her grandson used to feed the family off the harvest from their tiny field and the earnings they made by making bricks for neighbours. But their field produced nothing this year, and no-one has money to pay them for piecework.
So she begs door to door for small handfuls of grain and watches fearfully as her 1- and 4-year-old great grandchildren grow weaker.
Siziba says she has not even bothered to plow her tiny field for the upcoming planting season, which frightens aid workers who hope the crisis will end with the next harvest.
"Where will I get the money to get the seed," she said. - Sapa-AP

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.