Changing Language, Remaining Pygmy

A barefoot boy stands on parched, cracked soil near the village of Mtema Nyema in the southern district of Phalombe. Droughts and flooding in the past year have led to massive food shortages in the region. In late June and early July 2002, deepening malnutrition caused by a growing food shortage threatens 3.2 million people in Malawi, part of a region-wide crisis affecting several countries in southern Africa. The crisis results from a combination of harsh climatic conditions (droughts and flooding), poor management of food reserves, and political and economic instability. An estimated 12.8 million people in the region, including 2.3 million children under five, will require food assistance through March 2003. In Malawi, as in several other affected countries, widespread poverty and the increasing economic and social disruption caused by a devastating HIV/AIDS crisis are additional factors disrupting agriculture and the ability of social services to respond. Almost half of Malawi's 10.6 million inhabitants are children under 15. As part of the US $144.3 million United Nations Inter-Agency Appeal for southern Africa, UNICEF is requesting US $3.5 million for Malawi assistance through 2003. Assistance covers programmes in nutrition, health, water and sanitation, education and protection, including supplementary and therapeutic feeding assistance for pregnant or lactating women and malnourished children under five. The latter project serves some 8,000 chronically or severely malnourished children in 20 centres throughout the country.