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RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Famine Worsening the Health of People Living with AIDS
By Lewis Machipisa
HARARE, Dec 4 (IPS) - An acute shortage of food is worsening the health of people living with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, health officials have warned.
About half of Zimbabwe's 14.5 million people need urgent food aid between now and March 2003. Reports say some rural families have already resorted to eating wild fruits, prompting the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to appeal to donors to avert the famine.
''We are approaching the very worst period of the crisis, when 6.7 million Zimbabweans will need food aid and yet WFP does not even have the resources to meet our target of three million beneficiaries this month. It is an extremely serious situation and it is only going to get worse,'' said Kevin Farrell, WFP Representative in Zimbabwe.
WFP faces a shortfall of close to 200,000 tonnes between now and March 2003.
From three million people in 35 districts in November, there are plans for WFP to distribute relief food to 5.8 million beneficiaries in 57 districts by January, pending sufficient resources.
''We will all have to work non-stop over the coming months if we are to prevent millions of people from starving in Zimbabwe. The government, humanitarian agencies and the international community need to do everything possible to increase the flow of food into the country, otherwise the suffering that we are already seeing is only going to become more widespread and more acute,'' warned Farrell.
Levels of malnutrition are worsening, while cases of hunger-related diseases are becoming more frequent.
UNAIDS says it is working to increase the amount and quality of food distributed to people living with HIV/AIDS.
''Having realised how much AIDS and food are interconnected, we are striving to increase the size of household rations while at the same time fortifying maize-meal with vitamins and other minerals,'' UNAIDS's Gael Lescornec was quoted by Zimbabwe's Sunday Mirror newspaper as saying on Dec 1.
Marking World AIDS Day on Dec 1, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Peter Piot said more than seven million agricultural workers in 25 African countries have died of AIDS since 1985.
Around 15 million people in Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Malawi and Zambia face starvation.
World Vision, a non-governmental organisation (ngo), says there is a sharp increase in moderately malnourished children due to HIV/AIDS in parts of southern Zimbabwe, where the organisation is handing out relief food.
''We have realised that the food shortage is now exacerbating their downward spiral,'' says Rudo Kwaramba, who is in-charge of World Vision in Zimbabwe.
Kwaramba says food insecurity further increases both the risks of being exposed to HIV and a household's vulnerability to its increasing impact as the disease progresses.
For a person living with HIV/AIDS, not having the right nutrition could be a recipe to fast death.
A recent Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) report says HIV/AIDS has hit Zimbabwe's farm sector hard, with stricken families struggling to produce enough food to survive.
One in four, sexually active, adults in Zimbabwe is living with HIV/AIDS.
''The disease is no longer a health problem alone, but is having a measurable impact on food production, household food security and rural people's ability to make a living,'' the FAO report said.
WFP's Deputy Country Director Gawaher Atif says the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe has deteriorated to the point where ''we are very close to famine''.
The WFP has distributed more than 80,000 metric tonnes of food since Mar 2002. But in some cases when the food arrives, there are widespread claims that opposition supporters are being starved of aid by the government.
Rejecting the claims, the government says it distributes food to all those who need it, irrespective of their political affiliations.
President Robert Mugabe's government blames the food crisis on poor rains, despite mounting claims that his controversial land-reform programme has exacerbated problems caused by the drought.
''We would like to strongly react against the fact that the Zimbabwe government is using our aid and our food to put political and economic pressure on its own people,'' a European Union (EU) spokesperson said last month.
Recently, an American official warned that the United States might take ''intrusive'' measures to ensure that food aid was properly distributed.
Only the state-run Grain Marketing Board is allowed to distribute food countrywide, although it lacks the capacity to import enough cereal.
Villagers interviewed by WFP field monitors reveal that many schoolchildren arrive at their classrooms each day without having eaten.
A sight of children fainting in school has become common. Schoolchildren often have only tea without sugar for breakfast and wild fruits for lunch, unless their family receives food aid.
Many children drop out of school altogether due to hunger. A large number of secondary school students are dropping out to work as casual labourers in the hopes of supporting their families. Most poor families eat one meal a day.
According to WFP, although the government has agreed to allow WFP to distribute milled Genetically Modified (GM) maize, the health and safety concerns over the importation and distribution of GM maize have slowed the entry of much-needed aid.
''The number of those in need keeps soaring and WFP cannot cope on its own. The gap needs to be filled both by the government, as well as by WFP and NGOs. Only a collective effort can hope to combat this crisis,'' said Farrell. (END/2002)
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