From: sls2c@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: 9/24 Wire Stories on Hunger
Date: 8 Oct 92 19:58:37 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <1471700144@igc.apc.org>, Jim Rosenfield <jnr@igc.apc.org> writes:
> 
> /* Written  8:58 pm  Sep 24, 1992 by jnr in cdp:hunger.general */
> APn  09/24 1311  Somalia-Revitalized Village
> 
> Copyright, 1992. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
> 
> By EDITH M. LEDERER
> 
> Associated Press Writer
> 
> HOBISHOWLE, Somalia (AP) -- Ten days ago, this remote bush village was
> nearly deserted, its hungry residents crowding bigger towns in search
> of food. Now, 1,500 have returned, lured by the first truckload of
> maize -- and hope that more will come.
> 
> "Many people left the village because they had nothing to eat, and
> those who stayed were eating animal skins," said Abdulai Shek Ahmed,
> 45, supervisor of the food distribution and a member of the village
> council. "If we get regular food supplies, more and more people will
> come home."
> 
> What happened in Hobishowle (pronounced hoh-bee-SHOW-lee) is typical
> of dozens of villages in southern Somalia: civil war and famine drove
> those who could walk to overcrowded towns with poor sanitation, not
> enough water, very limited food and rampant disease.
> 
> A major goal of relief agencies working in the region is to return
> these wandering Somalis to their villages -- and to keep those who are
> there from leaving -- by giving them food and seeds.
> 
> "By us going in, we brought back 1,500 people," said Phoebe Fraser,
> 26, of Melbourne, team leader of CARE Australia, which provided the
> truckload of maize. "This means we have a target group motivated to
> work in the community."
> 
> Ms. Fraser, the daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm
> Fraser, said Hobishowle is one of six villages that CARE plans to keep
> providing with food. Two others are already receiving regular
> deliveries.
> 
> "In Hobishowle," she said, "we also plan to repair the windmill, open
> a feeding center and clinic, provide shelter material and seeds, and
> fix their water supply."
> 
> None of this welcome news, however, had reached Hobishowle, which is
> 40 miles and a two-hour drive down an often-disappearing, dusty road
> from Baidoa, the focal point of the famine where CARE's office is
> located. It is 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu, the capital.
> 
> On the winding desert track leading to Hobishowle, about 60 conical
> thatched huts remain deserted, one with an animal skeleton in its
> yard, another with ragged pieces of cloth apparently put out to dry on
> a now-brittle scrub bush.
> 
> In the center of the village, made up of dozens of similar huts, the
> men had gathered to watch the distribution of the last of the maize.
> Only a handful of men work, and it was the major activity of the day.
> 
> Women and children sat quietly in line, and men with branches acting
> as monitors brought small groups forward to the maize sack. A village
> elder scooped a pound of maize into cans, bowls, shoulder bags made of
> skin, and every conceivable plastic container.
> 
> Noonai Ibrahim Ahmed, 45, whose husband died in the famine, said she
> received 2.2 pounds of maize, but had five children to feed.
> 
> "We need food," she said. "I have been digging roots and then pounding
> them to try to save my family."
> 
> Clutching a dirty plastic container, with his ration, Abdi Ibrahim,
> 40, worried aloud. "If the maize is exhausted, we won't survive."
> 
> No one knows exactly how many people have died of starvation in
> Hobishowle.
> 
> Ahmed, the food supervisor, said 6,000 villagers had lost their lives
> in the civil war and famine.
> 
> Throughout Somalia, starvation caused by drought and warfare threatens
> 2 million people, and officials say up to half a million could die by
> Christmas unless they receive immediate food and medical care.
> 
> "There has been serious hunger for six months," said Sheik Yusuf Sheik
> Ahmed, 50, the Muslim leader in the village. "We don't count. We just
> bury the dead."
> 
> He urged the international community to provide more food and repair
> the village's broken water pump and asked Muslims to restore the
> looted mosque which needs new rugs, iron sheeting for a new roof, and
> a loudspeaker with batteries.
> 
> "It is also the season of planting," council member Ahmed said. "We
> need seeds since we are farmers. We also need medicine and clothes."
> 
> With the last of the maize quickly disappearing, everyone's thoughts
> were on food -- and where their next meal would come from.
> 
> "Since the famine started, people have become very close to their
> religion," said Sheik Ahmed. "Always, they pray, begging God to feed
> them. Always, people come to the mosque and they beg God to give them
> better opportunities."
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Used with permission of Associated Press
> 
>