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KENYA: Joseph Maina: "For every 30kg of waste, they pay me 50 shillings"

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:44:49 GMT

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Joseph Maina rummages through waste at Boma, the nickname for the Dandora municipal dumpsite in the eastern part of Nairobi. He is looking for bottles, plastic containers, anything that shop owners and local companies will buy for recycling. He talked to IRIN about eking a living out of the 12 hectare rubbish site.

"I came here in 1996 after I stopped going to school because there was no money.

"I come here every day early in the morning. We remove the garbage from the trucks, and then I sort it out and take whatever I need. We are usually given 50 shillings [about 60 US cents] by the truckers to unload the waste.

"I then collect broken bottles and put them in sacks for sale to the brokers. For every 30kg of waste, they pay me 50 shillings.
"That is too little because they [the brokers] will resell the bottles for much more to the big industries.
"Here we are all equal, it’s first come, first served. There is no tribalism. Last year when people were fighting, life at the site went on as usual.
"If you try to cause chaos here you will be beaten and taken to the police.
"Now the government wants to move the site elsewhere and put up a recycling plant. Why can’t they do it here and hire us instead?

"I get everything from Boma."

IRIN

Miriam Makeba remembered

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:50:11 GMT

Monday, November 10, 2008

Singer decried hunger, violence and poverty

The sudden death of South African singer and human rights activist Miriam Makeba, 76, has claimed the voice of one of FAO’s most dedicated advocates, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said today.

“For nearly a decade, FAO Goodwill Ambassador Miriam Makeba was a strong supporter of FAO’s fight to reduce hunger and improve the livelihoods of the world’s poorest people,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said on learning of Makeba’s death.

“Mama Africa spoke out against the violence, inequality and disease that kept many people, especially women and children, living in conditions of extreme poverty. We will miss her energy and her respectful concern for the world’s most vulnerable,” Diouf said.

Makeba had been an FAO Goodwill Ambassador since 1999. Over the years, she had participated in a long list of events and concerts organized by FAO, including performances to raise funds for FAO TeleFood projects in South Africa, Jamaica and Spain.

Makeba was active in FAO’s communications campaigns against hunger, both in interviews with the international news media and through public service announcements.

In April 2001, Makeba visited FAO post-emergency projects in Mozambique, increasing the visibility and impact of FAO’s activities in Africa.

On her last official mission on behalf of FAO, in March 2008, Makeba travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to visit FAO emergency projects designed to help survivors of violence and HIV positive women and men feed their families and revive their livelihoods through farming.

FAO

Gambian students back fromVenezuela speak

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:04:21 GMT

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Monday, November 10, 2008

The Venezuela ambassador to the Gambia, Mrs Louder Perez, recently organised a briefing session for 7 Gambian students who had just returned from Venezuela, at the end of a 3 months intensive study in agriculture. The reception was hosted at the new Venezuelan Embassy complex in Kotu.

The purpose of the briefing was to expose the students to the media so that they could share their knowledge with the wider Gambian community, as to the new skills and technologies that they acquired while in Venezuela.

Addressing the session, Ambassador Perez expressed joy that the students had successfully completed their study. She remarked that the cooperation between the Gambia and Venezuela was part of the general framework of agreement that President Hugo Charvez is building between her country and Africa.

She further indicated that the cooperation was neither based on money nor material, but rather, it was a new type of cooperation that aims to build the capacity of the people for their own development so as to enable them to eliminate poverty. She called on the students to be ready to share their knowledge with their people, adding that Venezuela was looking forward to expanding the cooperation to other sectors of the country, not only agriculture.

For their part, the students expressed great satisfaction about the state of agricultural mechanisation in Venezuela. They also spoke at length about the various skills and techniques they learned, ranging from horticulture; seed production; aqua culture; food processing; and a host of other disciplines. They made strong promises to ensure taking their knowledge to the grass root by sharing their new skills and techniques with their fellow farmers in the fields.

The students further expressed optimism that with available resources, The Gambia has a great potential to mechanise her agricultural sector. They therefore called on the government to assist them with the necessary tools and equipment to enable them put into practice their knowledge and accomplish the dream of mechanising agriculture in the country. They also called on their fellow farmers to be open to changes and to accept the new skills and techniques from them, so that collectively they can improve the quality of production.

Author: by Gibairu Janneh

ZIMBABWE: Hunting for good garbage to eat

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:31:42 GMT

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Desperate entrepreneurs are scouring rubbish dumps, abattoirs and poisoned waterways for scraps of food to eat or sell to other equally hungry Zimbabweans in a bid for survival.

The implicit health hazards of rotting food and fish are a secondary concern to Saidi Arufandika, 60, who regularly cycles 34km from the dormitory town of Chitungwiza to the capital, Harare, to sift through the garbage at Mbare Musika market, where the traders discard heaps of tomatoes, cabbages, carrots and potatoes as unsuitable for sale.

"I have joined many other people in scrounging for food at this dumping site, because that is my only way of ensuring that my grandchildren have food," Arufandika told IRIN. "For my age, cycling almost 70km a day is very taxing, but that is the only way of beating the hunger that we are facing."
At home he picks through the best of his harvest to feed his bed-ridden son and three grandchildren left in his care after his two daughters left home to become sex workers.

The excess food is dried in the sun to disguise its rotten state and sold in the neighbourhood, where he finds a ready market, as few people can afford to buy fresh vegetables.

"I have been coming to Mbare since February this year. I made the decision after my grandchildren went for two days surviving on water alone," said Arufandika, whose monthly pension has been made worthless by the country's official inflation rate of 231 million percent.

His Chitungwiza neighbour, John Murombedzi, 48, has cast his net wider in his effort to survive. "I have a tight schedule in which I alternate between visiting the garbage sites in Mbare, waiting for offals and other meat products that are thrown away at a nearby abattoir, and going around the lakes close to Harare to look for fish," he told IRIN.

Murombedzi combs the shores of the reservoirs, picking up fish succumbing to oxygen depletion in weed-choked waterways, and uses some of the catch for his own consumption and then sells the remainder at informal drinking establishments.

"My clients do not know that the fish I sell to them would have died of poisoning, and that the offals are collected from a garbage site. Even though I sometimes feel bad about it, I have come to the conclusion that it is better to ensure my own survival than to be honest to others," he said.

Leather disguised as meat

Occasionally the abattoir's owner has given him animal hides, "but no-one is making shoes in Zimbabwe these days, so I carefully work the hide and boil it thoroughly to sell as meat to beer drinkers." Murombedzi suspects that his are not the only such acts of "dishonesty" and that others are doing the same to stay alive.

His 13-year-old son has been battling cholera, an easily treatable waterborne disease that spread through Chitungwiza, claiming several lives as a consequence of interrupted water supplies and sewer pipe bursts left unrepaired.

"Water supplies are so irregular where I stay and in some cases I am forced to give my children food that would not have been properly washed. My son could have died due to cholera. Ours is a vicious cycle of hunger, death and the struggle to survive," he said.
"Hunger in urban areas, like food insecurity in rural areas, is spiralling out of control and the scale of need is shocking," Fambai Ngirande, spokesperson for the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO), told IRIN.

The UN predicts that more than 5.1 million people, or nearly half the country's population, will require emergency food assistance in the first quarter of 2009.

"The issue of food insecurity in Zimbabwe, from the perspective of humanitarian organisations, has largely tended to have rural dimensions, and even though there is focus on vulnerable groups of society in towns and cities, more attention has been given to rural communities," Ngirande said.

He said increasing hunger and poverty in urban areas could easily cause civil unrest, and blamed the government, which recently accused NGOs of hoarding food in order to create discontent among the people.

"The government ought to re-engage the international community in good faith because without that, people are going to die. As it is, a lot of uncertainty surrounds the next harvests because there are no inputs for the current farming season, Ngirande said.

Renson Gasela, an agriculture expert and spokesman on the sector for the opposition the Movement for Democratic Change, told IRIN: "The reality for urban areas is that there are those who are living comfortably - mostly through hook and crook - but they belong to the minority, and there are those that are struggling to put food on the table.

"Tension is growing, and one day they might take to the streets in protests, despite the presence of big guns and tear gas."

IRIN

UGANDA: Drought, hunger drive Karamoja children to beg in Kampala

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:34:01 GMT

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Agatha Locham, 23, sits with her two weak and malnourished children a few steps from the entrance to a bank in Kampala.

“Mpayo ekikumi [give me a 100-shilling coin]," the boy, his stomach distended, shouts at passers-by.

Locham and her children are among the increasing number of residents of the drought-prone region of Karamoja, north-eastern Uganda, who have travelled hundreds of kilometres to the city to beg to survive.

She said her malnourished child was weak because they had not had a decent meal in days.

Locham declined to reveal how much they made in a day, saying only that it was sufficient for a room in Kisenyi slum.

Up to 30 people live in rooms meant for five in Kisenyi, with children charged 100 shillings (five US cents) while adults pay 300 shillings (15 cents) per night.

"We live a hard life, but it is better than remaining in Karamoja where we lack food and security," Locham said.

She said she left her village in Karamoja's Bokora county because of "extreme hunger" and insecurity. The family's cattle were taken by warriors, known as “karacunas”.

However, she said life on Kampala's streets had other tribulations as her children faced threats such as abuse, disease and poor living conditions.

Most of the child beggars from Karamoja lack access to shelter and medical care, and most display signs of stunted growth.

Livelihood pressures

In Karamoja, the cow is the main resource, but many have been lost in the clashes, forcing locals to resort to other means of survival, including migrating to urban centres to eke out a living as porters, labourers or beggars. Charities estimate 90 percent of children on Kampala's streets under the age of five are from Karamoja.
The State Minister for Youth and Children's Affairs, James Kinobe, said: "There are push factors behind this exodus. The information we have is that some people go and bring these children from their villages and use them to beg on the streets, then share the proceeds. This is unacceptable."

The UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF) expressed grave concern. "UNICEF is engaged in concerted advocacy with national and local authorities in Uganda, with the aim of addressing the key factors which predispose children to risks like hazardous labour, exploitation and abuse,” Chulho Hyun, spokesman for UNICEF, said.

Life on the streets

Kinobe said the government wanted to stop one of the "pull factors" - easy money - by outlawing donations from pedestrians to these “abused children”.

"We want the Kampala City Council to pass a by-law outlawing helping these children on the streets; if we want to help them, we should do that at their homes so that we can get these children out of danger."

He said some of the children were being rounded up and taken to a probation centre where they were offered social orientation lessons, given resettlement kits including blankets, clothes and soap, before being returned to Karamoja.

"But there is an organised racket that exploits the children as those retrieved from the streets are brought back to the streets,” he said.

The minister said some of the beggars were making as much as $25 daily.

"This income keeps them coming," he said. "The money is shared between the person who gets them from Karamoja to outskirt towns like Iganga [eastern Uganda] and the one who connects the chain to Kampala."

Shocks

But UNICEF said the cause of the migration from Karamoja to urban centres was not just about money.
"The past three years of successive shocks - droughts, floods and insecurity - have not only heightened poverty in an already food-insecure sub-region, but also led to a pronounced trend of out-migration to urban centres and a host of protection concerns for separated children.

"Our main response has been to lead the effort to ensure the voluntary, safe and dignified return and reintegration of separated children."

"Reducing vulnerability and deprivation is key to combating the risks to which children may be exposed,” he added.

IRIN

The role of the media in the prevention of malaria and HIV/Aids

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:19:21 GMT

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

The media being in the frontline of disseminating information has a big role to play when it comes to fight against the killer diseases, malaria and HIV/Aids in Africa and the world at large.

Health reporters contribute a lot towards enlightening the general populace on the dangers and impacts of these ailments, raising awareness about possible symptoms, ways and means of prevention.

Caused by a plasmodium parasite, which is injected into the blood stream of a potential victim by the mosquito, Malaria is estimated to affect about 300-350 million people the world over, and it is reported to be responsible for 1.2 million deaths globally. The number of people dying as a result of malarial infection increases on an annual basis, this is especially so in the horn of Africa.

According to global statistics, malaria victims are mostly found in Africa, accounting for about 90% of death in Africa.

Malaria is a disease that mostly affects children under 5 years including pregnant women, and it is said to consume 40% of health expenditure.

The HIV/Aids pandemic is another problem of the day, which is spread mainly through sexual contact. It is another most devastating global health problem of our time, killing people in masses through out the globe. Many believe that it is a leading cause of chronic poverty in the world, especially in Africa.

The media is therefore expected to enlighten and educate the world about this two devastating diseases that are causing untold deaths and suffering in the world.

It is the responsibility of all segment of the media; be it print or electronic, to ensure that the people are aware of the devastating effects of these diseases.

Author: by Alieu Ceesay & Hatab Fadera

Well done Mr President

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:57:57 GMT

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Editor,

Please, allow space in your respectable medium to express my love and appreciation for the president of the Republic, Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, for the good work he continues to embark on. He has done wonders since assuming the mantle of leadership of this country, which he in fact made to look like a real country, and its people feeling proud of themselves. He made all the roads bright and lovely. When we enter Banjul, the Arch 22 feeds our hearts with joy.

Jammeh, you are a great man!
You treat the sick and you are doing everything to alleviate poverty. We can hardly ever finish talking about all the good work you have been doing for us as Gambians. What a great man you are, President Jammeh!

My only advice to my fellow Gambians is to be steadfast in following behind the president.

The right word is: ‘Taku Legaaye’ with Jammeh. We will follow you and give you all our hopes. Well done, Mr President.

Anta Njie
Lamin Village

Author: DO

UN Day celebrated in The Gambia

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:04:26 GMT

Monday, October 27, 2008

As part of its activities celebrating UN Day, the United Nations system in The Gambia, in conjunction with the department of state for Basic and Secondary Education, last Friday, held an inter-school quiz competition, at the Corinthia Atlantic Hotel in Banjul.

This year’s event, organized to coincide with its 63rd anniversary, was centred on the theme: "UN for you.

In her message, the resident coordinator of the UN system in The Gambia, Madam Chinwe Dike, indicated that the concept behind the theme is that information sharing about the UN and its activities would be done through schools. "In The Gambia, we thought this will take the form of a quiz competition among secondary schools in the form of a learning session about the UN,’’ she explained.

Commenting briefly on the history of the organization, she seized the opportunity to recall that the UN office was established in The Gambia in 1975, and that one of its objectives is to support the development efforts of the government of The Gambia in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Reminding the audience of the genesis of the MDGs, she recalled that in September 2000 world leaders committed their nations to a global partnership to eradicate extreme poverty, agreeing to uphold a series of time-bound targets – with a deadline of 2015. This, Mrs Dike said, eventually became the Millennium Development Goals.

In his address, the Secretary of State for Youths and Sports, Sheriff Gomez, expressed delight in witnessing the historic event. ‘‘Of recent, all the work of the United Nations had been focused on the pledges made by its member states in form of the MDGs,” he said, acknowledging that it encompasses all the commitments made at various global conferences from 1990 to 2000’.

SoS Gomez however identified low level of external assistance, contrary to the promise made by the developed world, as "the biggest challenge for our attainment of the MDGs by 2015."

He said was glad to observed that for the participating students, the occasion would increase their awareness of The Gambia’s development concerns and in particular the MDGs. The inter-school quiz competition, he said, would further enhance the students’ participatory responsibility to common issues thereby further strengthening collective commitment at national level.

In a similar vein, Dr Pap Sey, who deputised for the SoS for Basic and Secondary Education, said that the latest report on progress towards attainment of the MDGs in the country was encouragingly positive in many respects. He said that this year’s theme, culminating in to an inter-school quiz competition, made it relevant to observe with pride that the education sector was in no small way associated with these successes.

He reassured the gathering that the government of The Gambia and the education sector, in particular, would not falter in pursuing the noble ideals, values, goals and targets.

Participating schools in the inter-schools competition came from region one: Gambia Senior School; Gambia Methodist; St Joseph Senior School; Ndow’s Senior School; Nusrat Senior Secondary School; Marina International. The Gambia Methodist emerged victorious, coming out with first position. They received certificates, a trophy and a cash prize of D5, 000. Marina International and St. Joseph, respectively, came out second and third with D4, 000 and D3, 000 respectively.

The vote of thanks was delivered by Modou Sowe, the Head boy of Gambia Senior Secondary School.

UN Day inter-schools quiz competition

In commemorating its 63rd anniversary, the United Nations system in The Gambia organized, in collaboration with the Department of State for Basic and Secondary Education, an national inter-schools quiz-competition. The event took place at Corinthia Atlantic Hotel in Banjul. Centred on the theme “UN4U”, the competitors at the level of senior secondary school were drawn from the from six schools in region one.

UN Day cocktail dinner

In another development, a cocktail reception that was held at Sheraton Hotel consecrated the UN Day. The occasion brought together a good number local UN staff, government dignitaries, members of the Diplomatic Corps amongst others...

Author: by Alieu Ceesay

SOUTH AFRICA: Wealth gap becoming a chasm

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:01:03 GMT

Monday, October 27, 2008

Despite the dismantling of apartheid in the early 1990s, and significant annual economic growth over the past 10 years, South African cities have the highest levels of inequality in the world, according to the UN Habitat's latest State of the World's Cities report.

The flagship report, published every two years, says even though local governments in the continent's richest country have adopted policies to fight poverty, efforts to bridge the gap between rich and poor have for the most part failed.

At the report's launch, UN-Habitat executive director Anna Tibaijuka said inequalities were not only increasing in South Africa's urban centres, but were also becoming more entrenched, "which suggests that failures in wealth distribution are largely the result of structural or systemic flaws".

"In Africa, urban income inequalities are highest in southern Africa," she said. "South Africa stands out as a country that has yet to break out of an economic and political model that concentrates resources."

Historically, the gap between the haves and have-nots has been vast due to the nature of the apartheid regime, which for decades enriched the country's white population at the expense of their black, coloured and Indian co-inhabitants.

Despite majority rule since 1994, the trend has continued. The Johannesburg Poverty and Livelihoods Study (JPLS), released by the Centre for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg last month, shone the spotlight on eight of the city's most deprived communities to highlight the gravity of their situation.

Two South Africas

Of the 1,409 households surveyed in the third quarter of 2007, just over half (51 percent) earned below US$230 per month, and one in five people had no income at all. This contrasts with the wealth of the northern suburbs, where behind high walls are swimming pools, private schools and German luxury cars parked in double garages.

According to Jean du Plessis, a housing and land researcher and former deputy director of the Geneva-based Centre of Housing Rights and Evictions, one of the legacies of apartheid has been the rapid urbanisation of South Africa's cities, which has contributed to current urban inequalities.

"Under apartheid the majority of South Africans were not allowed to move freely or to acquire secure land rights in urban centres. Once this inequitable system collapsed in the early 1990s, you had accelerated movement of black people from rural to urban areas. A further contributing factor has been a decline in subsistence agriculture," he said.

UN-Habitat figures show that South Africa's urban population is now at 58 percent, and of the total urban population, 33 percent are living in slums and squatter camps where basic service delivery is poor.

Du Plessis added that the challenge for local government has been: how do you deal with this massive influx of people in terms of providing housing, services and jobs?

"City mangers have focused on the provision of formal, subsidised housing as the solution, which is a long, slow and limited process. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of families have ended up living in informal settlements, under constant fear of forced eviction," he said.

"In my view, the starting point should have been providing security of tenure to everyone needing a place to live in the cities, and to follow that up with intensive development support."

IRIN

Guest editorial: Poverty eradication & sustainability

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:01:25 GMT

Thursday, October 23, 2008

When we talk about fighting poverty, we usually think of how we can help those who are extremely poor to lead more dignified lives, by enabling them to access basic needs such as adequate food, clothing, shelter, water and sanitation and health services, access to a reasonable income and education.

While it is important to empower the poor so that they can lead meaningful lives, we need to think of how we as a society are participating in actions that perpetuate rather than eliminate poverty.

This has to do with the way we use the resources available to us; i.e. if we do not use them in a sustainable way, then that means we are promoting the very poverty that we are trying to eliminate, by depleting the few available resources at our disposal. This can only spell disaster for future generations since they will have to struggle for survival if we do not leave anything for them.

Global warming and climate change have led to desertification, drying of water sources and change of climatic patterns, thus leading to scarcity of food production as a result of diminishing arable land and long periods of drought. The adverse effect of it is that of acute water shortage causing dehydration and forceful immigration and thus increasing poverty in an unprecedented scale.

Therefore we can rightly say that conserving our environment and sustainable use of resources are key factors, if we are to win this war on poverty eradication. We need to think and act in a sustainable way even as we make and implement development plans to lift our people out of those dehumanizing conditions.

Lobbying and petitioning the policy-makers is very important, but we also need to adopt other formulas by engaging policy makers .It is also important to ask ourselves what role can we as individuals play in eliminating poverty? As individuals we can play a significant role in fighting poverty by using resources more sensibly. If we all take time to learn everyday on how we can use the resources available to us more efficiently, and then we will be making progress towards eradicating poverty.

Some of these actions of making a sustainable living include: recycling waste, reducing wastage of resources, not leaving the taps running and switching of lights when not in use. It is not only the responsibility of the government to eradicate poverty, but you can also help in a big way by living in a sustainable way.

You may have all that you need today and may not think much about that tap you left dripping, but if you do not act now to use resources more carefully, then your offspring will be affected since they may not have adequate water to live on.

Let us all take care of the environment and use our resources well. It is your life, and the future is at stake

Sulayman Manneh

Author: DO