U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa

Tel: +27 11 880 4633
Fax: +27 11 880 1421
e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-Up 336
2 - 8 June 2007


CONTENTS:

UN appeals to G8 leaders for money to research climate change in Africa
MOZAMBIQUE: Dearth of medical skills exaggerate the plight of
   HIV-positive children
SOUTH AFRICA: Provincial border dispute threatens school for challenged
   children
SWAZILAND: Alien plants invading agricultural land
ZIMBABWE: More than a third of Zimbabweans require food assistance
MOZAMBIQUE: Children are last in line for HIV/AIDS treatment
NAMIBIA: Most rape victims know the rapist


UN appeals to G8 leaders for money to research climate change in Africa

The United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has appealed
to the Group of Eight (G8) leaders for money to help improve Africa's
climate data collection. "Climate change is a global phenomenon; to make
predictions and study its impact - data from South Africa will be as
important to Russia as would information from Mongolia for Kenya",
Michel Jarraud, WMO secretary-general told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72595


MOZAMBIQUE: Dearth of medical skills exaggerate the plight of
HIV-positive children

When Dr Virginia Jose Albino leaves her post at a rural health centre in
Mozambique's central province of Zambezia, HIV/AIDS services at the
clinic nearly grind to a halt.

Last month, Albino went to the provincial capital, Quelimane, for a week
of work-related meetings, and returned to a pile of new case files and
the news that one of a handful of HIV-positive children on
antiretroviral (ARV) treatment had died. "It was a child I had hopes
for", she said. "I don't know what happened".

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72596


SOUTH AFRICA: Provincial border dispute threatens school for challenged
children

The protracted provincial border dispute between the government and
residents of Khutsong, a township outside the mining town of
Carletonville, has blocked the funding of a care centre for mentally and
physically challenged children.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72585


SWAZILAND: Alien plants invading agricultural land

Alien vegetation is preventing food production on vast tracts of
Swaziland's agricultural land, compounding the country's worst ever
harvest, which has led to more than a third of the population requiring
food aid.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72563


ZIMBABWE: More than a third of Zimbabweans require food assistance

Zimbabwe's poor harvest "due to adverse weather conditions" and an
economy wracked by hyperinflation will leave more than a third of the
population requiring food assistance by early next year, a joint report
released on Tuesday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72566


MOZAMBIQUE: Children are last in line for HIV/AIDS treatment

At Quelimane hospital, in Mozambique's central province of Zambezia,
paediatrician Maria Joao Soromenho encounters a sobbing young mother and
her one year-old daughter. The baby is skeletal, no bigger than a
newborn, and shows few signs of life. The medical staff suspect the
child is HIV-positive and suggest to the mother that she takes a blood
test, but she wants to leave the hospital and take the child with her.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72534


NAMIBIA: Most rape victims know the rapist

Two thirds of rape and attempted rape victims in Namibia know their
perpetrators, a report released ahead of this month's national
conference on violence against women and children said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72535


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