Sharpe
Senior Moderator
It's really sad to read these stories, but at the same time it's very educating. Here you have a poor continent, with poorer people, and read what they do for food. Now you understand why a pandemic is inevitable.
http://www.observer.org.sz/main.asp?id=23551&Section=main
Nkhanini family in dire straits
By Nondumiso Dlamini
A teenage mother of three lives in abject poverty in Nkhanini area around Lobamba. Sthembile Nkhambule (18) lives in a three-roomed stick and mud hovel that is surrounded with cracked walls ready to collapse at anytime. The children, it appears, pray never to see the next day because they do not know what to have for a meal.
She says her boyfriend stays in Ngwenya and only visits her once a month with a bag of mealie-meal.
The children's age difference is one year.
The family?s condition worries neighbours who feel the suffering is just too much for the children and a mother who has no source of income to bear. Nkhambule claims she was born at Ekupheleni and brought to Lobamba by the father of her three children. The children are Sibonga (4), Mxolisi (3) and Sebenzile (1). However, Nkhambule said she does not know what type of work her boyfriend does.
?We are still in good terms but he comes home only once a month to bring only a bag of mealie-meal and soap,? she said, adding that they had since run out of the mealie-meal as he earns very little. When the children fall sick she has to go to neighbours to ask for medication and some good Samaritans give her E2 to go to Lobamba Clinic. When our crew arrived at the homestead on Monday afternoon, Nkhambule had gone to look for ?umbhabhamane?, any chickens dying from unknown diseases in the neighbourhood. The children were so dirty as if their last bath was a few weeks ago. It seems they were attacked by flu as they were coughing and their noses dripping.
The young mother cooks in the open and uses tins as her pots but this is not quite often because of lack of something to cook. ?I wanted to call their father and tell him about the food problem but I don?t even have money to make a phone call.
However, my neighbour has promised to assist me make the call,? she said. The husband spends more money coming to Nkhanini than the value of the foodstuff he brings. However, the common sight at the end of a year is a bulging belly expecting yet another mouth to feed.
Anyone willing to assist can call The Swazi Observer Community Desk on 404 9600
http://www.observer.org.sz/main.asp?id=23551&Section=main
Nkhanini family in dire straits
By Nondumiso Dlamini
A teenage mother of three lives in abject poverty in Nkhanini area around Lobamba. Sthembile Nkhambule (18) lives in a three-roomed stick and mud hovel that is surrounded with cracked walls ready to collapse at anytime. The children, it appears, pray never to see the next day because they do not know what to have for a meal.
She says her boyfriend stays in Ngwenya and only visits her once a month with a bag of mealie-meal.
The children's age difference is one year.
The family?s condition worries neighbours who feel the suffering is just too much for the children and a mother who has no source of income to bear. Nkhambule claims she was born at Ekupheleni and brought to Lobamba by the father of her three children. The children are Sibonga (4), Mxolisi (3) and Sebenzile (1). However, Nkhambule said she does not know what type of work her boyfriend does.
?We are still in good terms but he comes home only once a month to bring only a bag of mealie-meal and soap,? she said, adding that they had since run out of the mealie-meal as he earns very little. When the children fall sick she has to go to neighbours to ask for medication and some good Samaritans give her E2 to go to Lobamba Clinic. When our crew arrived at the homestead on Monday afternoon, Nkhambule had gone to look for ?umbhabhamane?, any chickens dying from unknown diseases in the neighbourhood. The children were so dirty as if their last bath was a few weeks ago. It seems they were attacked by flu as they were coughing and their noses dripping.
The young mother cooks in the open and uses tins as her pots but this is not quite often because of lack of something to cook. ?I wanted to call their father and tell him about the food problem but I don?t even have money to make a phone call.
However, my neighbour has promised to assist me make the call,? she said. The husband spends more money coming to Nkhanini than the value of the foodstuff he brings. However, the common sight at the end of a year is a bulging belly expecting yet another mouth to feed.
Anyone willing to assist can call The Swazi Observer Community Desk on 404 9600