WUNRN
The New York Times
Zimbabwe
- Desperate Children Flee, For Lives Just as Bleak - Girls
Aldah Mawuka, 17, said the first gumagumas she encountered only
robbed her; the second demanded that she pull down her jeans. The rapist was
very direct and impatient, she recalled: “If you don't do it, I'll kill you.”
Photo: Joao Silva for The New York Times
MUSINA,
South
Africa — They bear the look of street urchins, their eyes on the
prowl for useful scraps of garbage and their bodies covered in clothes no
cleaner than a mechanic’s rags.
Near
midnight, these Zimbabwean children can be found sleeping outside almost
anywhere in this border city. A 12-year-old girl named No Matter Hungwe,
hunched beneath the reassuring exterior light of the post office, said it was hunger
that had pushed her across the border alone.
Her
father is dead, and she wanted to help her mother and younger brothers by
earning what she could here in South Africa — within certain limits, anyway.
“Some men — men with cars — want to sleep with me,” she said, considering the
upside against the down. “They have offered me 100 rand,” about $10.
With
their nation in a prolonged sequence of crises, more unaccompanied children and
women than ever are joining the rush of desperate Zimbabweans illegally crossing
the frontier at the Limpopo River, according to the police, local officials and
aid workers.
What
they are escaping is a broken country where half the people are going hungry,
most schools and hospitals are closed or dysfunctional and a cholera epidemic
has taken a toll in the thousands......
Link to Full Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/world/africa/24zimbabwe.html
___________________________________________
"The main victims of the health
crisis in Zimbabwe are the elderly, children, women, and the chronically ill,
including people living with HIV/AIDS. Many district hospitals and municipal
clinics are currently either closed or operating at minimum capacity. As a
result, ordinary Zimbabweans cannot access basic healthcare.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors
for Human Rights ZADHR, said that about 3,000 women a month were giving
birth in public hospitals in Harare, with between 250 and 300 needing
lifesaving caesarean sections. The closure of the maternity hospitals will
result in many poor women being denied emergency treatment, and may further
contribute to the already rising maternal mortality rates. Private hospitals
charge for their services in foreign currency, pricing out most
Zimbabweans.
The work of local and international
humanitarian organizations has been hampered by a difficult economic
environment and political interference in their
operations."
Crisis
without Limits
Human
Rights and Humanitarian Consequences of Political Repression in Zimbabwe
January 22, 2009
Get the
Report
·
Download full report with cover
·
Table of
Contents
·
IV.
The Humanitarian Crisis and the State's Failure to Respond
·
V.
Ongoing Violations of Civil and Political Rights
·
VI.
Zimbabwe's Obligations under Regional and International Law
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