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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Hunger in Free State
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Foreign Broadcast Information Service, March 18, 1992
South Africa: Drought Crisis Continues; Claiming Victims.
Hunger in Free State
</hdr>
<body>
<p>[Article by Paula Fray: "Drought Brings Malnutrition".
Johannesburg THE STAR in English 17 Feb 92 p 1]
</p>
<p> [Text] This is the face of hunger as drought ravages South
Africa.
</p>
<p> Severely malnourished, Daniel Modise is one of thousands of
children in the Free State alone who would have died by now but
for help from Operation Hunger.
</p>
<p> When nurses first saw the toddler about a month ago with his
distended stomach and stick-like legs, they did not think he
would live more than two days.
</p>
<p> On the verge of death, he was "grossly malnourished and
dehydrated."
</p>
<p> Since then, medical staff at the Theunissen clinic have been
checking up on him and his family at the Lusaka squatter camp
each week.
</p>
<p> But conditions are far from ideal. The family lives in a
one-room tin shanty which brings little protection from the
boiling heat. Around them little grows and there is no work.
</p>
<p> Nearby, 32-year-old Mapakiso Mokgashane--herself
malnourished--is struggling to raise five children who also
need weekly care.
</p>
<p> The squatter camp, swelled by recent migrants from the
farms, has more than 90 percent unemployment, according to
Operation Hunger field coordinator Anthony Mfila. About 70
percent of Lusaka's children under five years are malnourished.
</p>
<p> However, according to Operation Hunger Free State regional
director Judith Mokgetle, while the incidence of malnutrition
is rising in Lusaka, other Free State towns such as Addington
and Bethlehem are even worse.
</p>
<p> In the entire Free State, says Mr Mfila, about 55 percent of
the children between five and 15 years are malnourished--most
of them from the farms.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>