Women worst hit by hunger

Lucy Susa sits outside the Mayani Health centre with twins Sainabu and Chemalenga sucking at her emaciated breasts. She's one of several hundred women who walk to the health centre, in the impoverished Dedza district in the centre of the country, for the babies' regular check up. She's a single mother with no other means of support and her struggle shows in the boys' thin legs and distended stomachs. According to the Malawi National Human Development report, 65 percent of the people in Malawi are poor and 28 percent are extremely poor. Studies have shown that smallholders with less than one hectare of land, estate workers and tenants, low income urban dwellers, female-headed households and children suffer from chronic food insecurity. They also found that the majority of the poorest people in Malawi are women and that female-headed households - which make up 34 percent of households - shoulder the greater burden of poverty. "They earn low incomes and carry heavy responsibilities, such as looking after a large number of dependents. They also have few assets and other necessary amenities. Furthermore, they are weighed down by social, parental and marital obligations which reduce their opportunities and flexibility to move upwards even if they so desire," the report said. Living with this backdrop, single mothers like Lucy can't count on others for help. Her only chance of a small income is to do "ganyu" - casual labour - to help out during the short farming season. In Lucy's case, she is divorced from her husband and he has moved to Salima near Lake Malawi to compete with hundreds of other men for work. The report also noted that three-quarters of the population take more than 30 minutes to reach a health facility like the one Lucy just walked to with the twins and her seven-year-old daughter. She and the babies will be examined by a health worker and they will almost certainly be given rations to tide them over until their situation improves. More than three million Malawians are in need of food aid as a result of successive poor harvests. Not all the women queuing in their bright chitenges at the clinic will need help. But it is during this cacophony of crying babies and chattering women that health workers identify women in need. This information is passed to the district health department which, along with donors, plans the distribution of the emergency bags of maize or high energy baby formula. "This has been a very difficult time for me because my children have been constantly sick and the hunger is affecting the family," she told IRIN. "I harvested one big bag and this is what we are eating now - thieves stole from my field so I could not harvest more. One bag will last me [through this month] and after that I will try to look for [casual] work. It's becoming scarce though and with my children it's a problem. Things will get worse. I'm feeling a little overloaded," she said. Sitting next to her quietly is her seven-year-old daughter Ndamadile. She should be at school but Lucy says: "She has to help me with the twins." Ndamadile, like her mother, puts a human face to cold statistics. As she sits outside the clinic in her dusty little dress and bare feet her education, and any hope of a different life, passes her by. The report said that the student mix in secondary schools is 72 percent boys and 28 percent girls. Reasons for the low enrolment of girls in secondary schools stem from the poor academic performance of girls in the transition exam to secondary school. Schools report a high dropout rate for girls – often due to pregnancies – even though they are allowed to return after their babies are born. Only 27 percent of university admissions are women. Though still a little girl, Ndamadile already has the responsibilities of a woman. Every day she washes the dishes and pots, sweeps, looks after the twins, draws water from the well and cooks the relish for their dinner. Reports are currently beginning to filter through that other little girls are missing school to help care for relatives laid low by HIV/AIDS. If Lucy and the boys don't improve, they are referred to the nearby nutritional rehabilitation unit at St Joseph's clinic, run by the Catholic Church. Some of the women and children take the full maximum three months to get back on their feet. So far, the clinic has admitted 450 people since January. January and February are the worst months for the poor as they wait for their harvests with empty larders. But even the clinic ran out of food and had to close for a month in May, however, this was attributed to poor communication between the hospital and the district health offices. One of the patients is Forgina Baludzi. She and her tiny daughter are being nursed back to health. However, while Forgina is in the clinic, her four children are at home fending for themselves. Her husband has traveled to look for work. The eldest, a 10-year-old boy, gets home from school at noon and takes care of his siblings. Forgina left them with some food and told her son to go to his uncle if he had any problems. She said she had no other way to care for them.