wfn.org | ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY BULLETIN No. 42/02 (b)

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ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY BULLETIN No. 42/02 (b)
October 28, 2002

All Africa News Agency
P. O. BOX 66878 NAIROBI, KENYA.
TEL: (254 2) 442215 FAX: (254 2)445847/443241
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AANA Bulletin
Editor - Mitch Odero

Bulletin APTA
Acting Editor - Silvie Alemba

Children's Surgical Needs Are Unjustifiably Neglected

GENEVA (AANA) October 28 - There are only 39 qualified paediatric surgeons 
working in sub-Saharan Africa, although 6-12 percent of the child 
admissions are for surgery, according to a study published in the Bulletin 
of the World Health Organisation on October 21.

Ten of these surgeons work in West Africa, and the other 29 in East and 
southern Africa - most of them in Kenya and South Africa. "To continue to 
exclude basic surgical care from child health programmes destines children 
to death and disability.   This situation is ethically unacceptable", the 
authors, Stephen Bickler from the USA and Heinz Rode from South Africa, 
conclude.

At the centre of their study is the main government referral hospital in 
Gambia, where paediatric admissions needing surgery were 11 percent of the 
total. Most of these were for injuries - mainly road accidents, falls, 
burns and accidental poisoning. The remainder were mainly for congenital 
anomalies and surgical infections.

In rural East Africa, there are 40,000 episodes of injury per year per 
100,000 of the general population, causing 100 deaths. Mortality associated 
with injury is higher in cities; in an urban area of Uganda it was 
estimated at 217 per 100,000. Poor roads and vehicles, crowded transport 
systems and lack of law enforcement cause a high rate of traffic accidents.

Armed conflict - 11 major wars were being fought in Africa in  the year 
2000 alone - also takes a heavy toll. Up to 200,000 child soldiers (i.e. 
5-16 years of age) are thought to be participating in such conflicts at 
present. Landmines kill or mutilate 12,000 people a year, many of them 
children.

The long-term outcome for children who do not receive adequate surgery has 
not been sufficiently studied, but one indicator is the high disability 
rates in developing countries.

In one study 12 percent of households reported a disability related to 
injury. The most common of them are from mismanaged burns, fractures and 
dislocations.

Why do such needs get so little attention despite their high visibility? 
The authors point to the generally low priority children's needs are given 
in many under-resourced health systems and the frequent under-investment in 
hospital services in the poorest countries.

Related to this is the common belief that the knowledge, skill and 
equipment required for adequate surgery are unaffordable. Unsuccessful 
attempts to copy the services provided in western hospitals have reinforced 
this misconception.

The authors recommend defining a cost-effective package for paediatric 
surgical care. It should be based on the epidemiology of childhood surgical 
diseases, and define which operations are appropriate, at which level of 
the health system they should be made available, and the training needed to 
carry them out.

In some cases, children are sent to richer and better equipped countries 
for treatment. The intention is laudable, the authors note, but the money 
spent on caring for a single patient in this way would cover the cost of 
several weeks of surgical teaching in a developing country. The one 
encouraging feature of this study is the large number of opportunities the 
authors see for improvement.

Source: WHO

Libya Proposes Some Grand Plans For River Nile Waters

KAMPALA (AANA)October 28 - Libya has come up with a grand proposal of 
diverting the Nile waters to thirsty parts of Uganda.

Abdoul Salaam Kaaoud, Ambassador extraordinary plenipotential arrived in 
Uganda on October 10 and delivered his proposal to Yoweri Museveni, some of 
whose details have exclusively been obtained by AANA

Libyans want to construct surface and underground dams and canals along 
different points of the Nile River in Northern Uganda and Southern 
Sudan.	A Libyan technical team is expected in November to follow this 
proposal.

There are indications that Libyans will support SPLA and finance its 
programmes like oil exploration in exchange for guarantees for security of 
the project.  Nevertheless, the project may also depend on how keen Ugandan 
government is on the Nile waters project.

The apparent interest by the Ugandan government to pursue this project 
underline the growing independent line the government is following on use 
of Nile river at a time when the Nile waters are overcommited.

The government has drafted an irrigation policy and finalised expansion 
phase document for small-scale irrigation investments. It is projecting a 
four-fold increase from the present 5 percent to 20 percent by 2010.

The Ministry of Agriculture will this year start irrigation projects on 
30ha land and is updating financial status on the rehabilitation of Mobuku 
and Doho rice irrigation schemes.

In 2001 the government allocated 94 irrigation pumps to farmers and is 
promoting the establishment of community based model irrigation schemes 
along open water catchment in 20 districts involving 1000 farmers.

Uganda has also solicited Israeli technical help for the private sector 
especially in irrigation, which was underlined by the recent visit by the 
Israeli Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon.

Dr Kisamba Mugerwa, Minister of Agriculture says irrigation is being 
adopted as a strategy now that Uganda has been listed by FAO as low income 
and food deficit country as a result of erratic weather pattern and rapidly 
growing population.

Ugandan designs and independent attitude has caused unease to Egyptians who 
receive only 2 percent of the White Nile river water.

The Egyptian Ambassador to Uganda recently asked for clarification from 
Edward Sekandi, Speaker of Ugandan Parliament with regard to what he 
considered as unfriendly voices in parliament.

Amon Muzoora, an MP in September moved a seven page motion renouncing a 
pre-independence agreement that gave Egypt and Sudan control of the Nile 
river and for Egypt to compensate Uganda $2.2 billion annually.

There have also been "unfriendly" voices within Ugandan military.  The Army 
Commander, Major General James Kazini while at the launch of new defence 
reform programme in June criticised both Egypt and Sudan for "wanting to 
control Uganda through river Nile."

Reported by Crespo Sebunya

Displaced Farm Workers Are Now Starving In Zimbabwe

HARARE (AANA) October 28 - More than 150,000 farm workers who lost their 
jobs recently when the government ordered hundreds of white farmers to stop 
farming now face starvation as they have little food supplies left, 
according to a survey by the privately-run Zimbabwe Community Development 
Trust (ZCDT).

The ZCDT is a Harare-based non-government organisation (NGO) which provides 
shelter and food mostly to the former farm workers, as well as to people 
displaced by political violence.

Anglican church priest and ZCDT executive director Tim Neil recently said 
the survey on the plight of farm workers had been conducted on 3,000 
white-owned farms across Zimbabwe.  Since last month, the government has 
stepped up pressure on 2,900 white farmers to leave their properties after 
the expiry of its eviction notices on August 8.

About 300 farmers have been arrested in the past few weeks for refusing to 
obey the government's eviction notices, while others have compiled with 
it.  But many are refusing to quit their farms to make way for landless 
blacks, most of them government political supporters.

Farming operations have nonetheless stopped at nearly all the country's 
commercial farms after most farmers escaped to the safety or urban areas, 
leaving their workers stranded on the farms with no work or money to buy
food.

Neil said: "Half the number of farm workers had food to last them only for 
less than three months since the August 8 deadline and this means that 
beween the end of September and mid-October there will be a new group of 
people facing starvation."

There are a total 350,000 farm workers, each of whom on average supports 
about five dependants.

Neil said President Robert Mugabe's home province of Mashonaland West, 
which in the past has witnessed some of the worst violence on commercial 
farms, had the highest number or about a third of the farm workers 
threatened with hunger.

The government has promised to resettle the farm workers, together with 
landless villagers, under its controversial land reforms but to date only 
about one percent of the farm workers have been resettled.  Most of these 
are Mugabe's supporters.

Neil said some of the farm workers had escaped hunger on the farms and gone 
into Harare and other cities, where NGOs were helping them with food and 
shelter.  But several thousands more were still on the farms, surviving on 
the little food reserves they were left with when the farmers left.  Neil 
said his organisation had been overstretched beyond its means and that it 
was now finding it difficult to continue providing food to the displaced 
workers.

"We are capable of providing food to 400 families and this is a short-term 
solution which does not offer them a breakpoint and neither does it provide 
a movement towards a developmental approach," he said.

Meanwhile, Justice for Agriculture (JAG), a pressure group representing 
hundreds of Zimbabwean white farmers evicted from their properties by the 
government, recently said it is suing the state for compensation for losses 
incurred. JAG spokeswoman Jannie Williams said the compensation sought 
covered losses of stolen assets and earnings for both farm owners and 
employees.

Since the land invasions began in Zimbabwe's 4,500 white farmers have been 
prevented from farming, partly triggering the present food crisis.

Recently, the government ordered 2,900 of the farmers to quit their 
properties and hand them over to blacks under its land reforms.

Reported by Tim Chigodo

Malagasy Set For Elections

NAIROBI (AANA) October 28 - Malagasy will go to polls on December 15, the 
country's head of State, President Marc Ravalomanana announced here on 
October 21.

The head of State, who was making a stopover here on his way from Beyrouth, 
Lebanon, where he attended a summit for the French-speaking countries, also 
announced that his government dissolved the national assembly on October 16 
to give people enough time to prepare for the forthcoming parliamentary 
elections as well as revising the list of voters.

President Ravalomana, who also addressed the Malagasy people residing in 
Nairobi, Kenya, underscored his willingness to put into action the promises 
he had made to the people on development, when he took over the leadership.

According to him, the government was in the process of reviewing the 
education system of the country in order to improve education in the country.

"In this aspect, we intend to do away with taxes imposed on printing 
materials for schools and colleges, to help reduce cost of education," he 
stressed.

"The government also aimed at doing away with taxes imposed on construction 
materials to help the Malagasy people construct houses they can afford," 
added President Ravalomanana, who was met at the airport by a Kenyan 
minister of State in the Office of the President, Yusuf Haji and 
Madagascar's Consul in Nairobi, Mr. Abel Rakotomalala.

Reported by SHAR

Media Accused Of Failing In The War Against HIV/AIDS

NAIROBI (AANA) October 28 - Even though the fight against HIV/AIDS in 
Africa is said to be bearing some fruits, the poor impact of media coverage 
of the epidemic could become a major setback in the realisation of an 
AIDS-free society.

Greatly influenced by cultural beliefs and religious backgrounds, reporters 
are finding themselves at crossroads on how to discuss issues relating to 
HIV/AIDS without mentioning the sexual behaviour of those at risk of 
contracting the disease. This has made it difficult for the media to bring 
about behavioural change.

For example, in most of traditional African communities, mentioning the 
word 'sex' in public could be considered a taboo.  So do a number of 
traditional religious denominations.

A report titled "African Media Women Professionals, HIV/AIDS And The 
Cultural Factor" published recently observes that while sex is a private 
affair, its direct product (HIV/AIDS) is raising increasing public concern, 
considering its devastating effects on African societies.

The print media has an advantage over their electronic counterparts. They 
(print) can easily discuss intimate sex issues because theirs is an 
impersonal channel.

Bringing out the subject of sex and condom use in relation to HIV/AIDS by 
the TV and radio reporters may not go down well with a visiting father or 
mother-in-law together with the son or daughter-in-law and his /her 
adolescent children seated together in the living-room.

With such fear, it has been difficult for the media to institute the 
desired sexual behavioural change, making spread of HIV/AIDS even more
rampant.

Cultural beliefs and practices such as wife inheritance, woman to woman 
marriages (in case of a woman who cannot have children, so they are allowed 
to take a fertile woman who will bear her husband's children), FGM, have 
been highlighted by the media up to a certain level, but have not undergone 
thorough investigation to measure their extent and their relationship to 
the continued spread of HIV/AIDS.

In response to this, the report of the East African Regional Seminar for 
media practitioners sponsored by Unesco noted, "The media in Africa has a 
responsibility which it has failed to live up to, namely to educate people 
about the fact that some of these beliefs and practises require 
re-examination because they promote behaviours which put individuals at 
risk of contracting or transmitting HIV."

Research has found out that the media has played a role in stigmatisation 
of people living with HIV/AIDS. Use of words like scourge, pandemic and 
plague when describing AIDS paint the disease in a demonic light and 
stigmatises both the infected and affected persons.

The media in Africa was accused of spreading "moral panic". When the media 
targets certain individuals or groups for not undergoing one rite or the 
other and blows it up, the society is cautious of interacting with such
groups.

Religious organisations in Africa have for a long time held the notion that 
HIV/AIDS is an affliction of sinners. In the Western world, the Church has 
quickly responded to the epidemic and formulated prevention and control 
measures such as the use of condoms.

The religious background of a reporter or organisation may influence his or 
her way of reporting on HIV/AIDS. An example is that of religious based 
media, which may decide to black out any issues on HIV/AIDS or where they 
cover the issues, they may be filled with religious overtones.

The study underlines the need for the media to break these barriers through 
aggressive journalism aimed at educating society about the dangers of 
HIV/AIDS and implications of culture and religion on the disease.

Reported by Joyce Mulama