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'Even the goats are beginning to die'
Via Normblog, this is a site advocating democracy and rationality in Zimbobland. This is an excerpt from the October 7 entry....For over three years I learnt, the people of that dirt-poor region had been receiving a life-saving monthly food handout from Save the Children UK. Everyone over the age of 55 (and including those below that age who were known to be without food) could then rely upon a generous allocation of mealie-meal, cooking oil and beans. But this was no more, because ever since the ill-fated Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Bill had first been mooted in 2004 the Mugabe regime had banned humanitarian organizations like Save the Children from continuing with their general feeding programmes. Save the Children UK was given permission to continue its developmental work, such as digging wells to provide drinking water, but was ordered to discontinue the feeding. The reason cited by local ZANU PF officials was that these NGOs were engaging in a subversive political programme in support of the opposition MDC - which according to my well-informed Gogo, was absolute nonsense. The obvious next question was, how the people are surviving. The simple answer, it emerged, is that many are not. Many are succumbing to early deaths as a result of a major food deficiency. Statistics are difficult to come by in the very nature of the situation - a remote location with only rudimentary heath care facilities, and extreme sensitivity on the part of ZANU PF to anything resembling a proper health care study. But said Gogo, people are dying of malnutrition now. A visitor to the area could not help but notice how thin most people are. Anyone in the community believed to possess a significant amount of food, will have a trail of people to the door, virtually begging for help. My final question to Gogo was how she personally was managing to survive. She paused and a look of quiet resignation crossed her wizened features. "Aha," she said, "I used to keep chickens, but now there is an outbreak of Newcastle disease - right across Binga, Lupane, Hwange. Many, many chickens have died. Now I have nothing left to sell. The goats have a disease too. Even the goats are beginning to die." Posted by: Seafarious 2005-10-09 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=131778 |