[pronut-hiv] Villagers Feed On Leftovers

["ProNut-HIV" <pronut-hiv@healthnet.org>]

Villagers Feed On Leftovers

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

February 26, 2006 
Godfrey Mutimba
Masvingo 

As hunger continues to stalk Masvingo province, villagers in Zimuto
communal lands are scavenging for food leftovers at Zimuto Mission High
School.

Teachers at the school fear the villagers could be exposing themselves
to diseases since they battle with hungry dogs, which also forage for
food from the school's dumpsite and bins.

When The Standard visited the school just after lunch on Wednesday,
scores of hungry villagers were milling around the dumpsite, waiting for
cooks to dump the food leftovers.

One of the villagers, Tangai Mazambara, said he was scrounging for food
at the school while awaiting his crops to mature.

"Our families are starving," he said, "We can't watch them dying. It is
better for them to eat this food. We have nowhere to buy grain or maize
meal. If you go to the city you spend three days in a queue to buy maize
meal and the family will be starving," Mazambara said.

Asked whether he was not afraid of contracting diseases, Mazambara said
it was better to die of diseases than succumbing to hunger.

"We are aware of the possibilities of contracting diseases but we have
no option. It's better to die of a disease than to die of hunger," he
said, adding "we can't be infected because we boil the sadza before
eating it."

A Zimuto Mission teacher, who requested not to be named, described the
situation as "pathetic" adding the villagers risked contracting
diseases.

"The situation here is bad. Villagers invade the school bins on a daily
basis collecting leftovers and taking them home.

"I think something must be done because if this continues many people
will die of diseases like cholera," warned the teacher.

According to the teacher, the school authorities, have instructed the
school's cooks to store the leftovers in a clean place to avoid
deliberately exposing the villagers to the risk of a disease outbreak.


-----------------------------------
Eleonore Fosso  Seumo, Ph.D.
Senior Technical Advisor 
Global Health Population & Nutrition - AED
1825 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington DC 20009 5721

Tel: 202-884 8155
Fax: 202-884 8977
Email:eseumo@aed.org
www.aed.org