JOHANNESBURG, 5 January (IRIN) - CONTENTS

ZIMBABWE: 2007 kicks off with strikes ZIMBABWE: Necessity spurs urban farming BOTSWANA: San barred from ancestral land despite court victory SWAZILAND: Obesity in times of hunger LESOTHO: New policy to help orphans and vulnerable children

ZIMBABWE: 2007 kicks off with strikes

Zimbabwean employees marked the first week of 2007 by taking industrial action for better pay, against the background of inflation that continues to hover around 1,000 percent.

Hundreds of patients were left stranded during the Christmas holiday period as junior doctors in public hospitals across the country went on strike to press for better salaries and working conditions, while the power supply was disrupted in the capital, Harare, when Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) employees decided to stay away from work this week.

See report:

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56936

ZIMBABWE: Necessity spurs urban farming

Urban faming, widely practiced by the poor and lower-income groups in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, is fast becoming de rigeur among the city's wealthy set.

In affluent suburbs like Avondale and Mabelreign, maize and vegetable plots are sprouting up to counter expected food shortages brought on by an economic meltdown that has seen the inflation rate remaining well above 1,000 percent, the highest in the world.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56938

BOTSWANA: San barred from ancestral land despite court victory Despite winning their right to return home after a long-fought court battle, the San are not being allowed back in the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR), in the Kalahari Desert, according to an advocacy group.

In December 2006 the High Court of Botswana ruled that the San, also known as the Bushmen, had been wrongfully evicted from their ancestral homeland in the CKGR in 2002.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56912

SWAZILAND: Obesity in times of hunger Despite chronic food shortages afflicting all parts of Swaziland, a national survey has discovered that 55 percent of Swazi women are overweight or obese.

"The likelihood of a woman being overweight (pre-obese) or obese increased with age: 70 percent of women 40 to 49 years of age were overweight or obese," said the recently published survey by the health ministry's Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC), while about one-third of women aged 30 to 39 years were classified as overweight or obese.

See report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56913

LESOTHO: New policy to help orphans and vulnerable children Lesotho's government has approved a policy to care for its growing population of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC).

The policy, which will cost about US$1.3 million a year for the next five years, aims to provide free education, health services, sports and recreation facilities, and set up small-scale businesses to make the children and their caregivers economically self-sufficient.

See report:

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56901

IRIN news

Delicio.us  |   Digg  |   NewsVine  |   Reddit                                                                                  Permalink