From: barnhart@netcom.com (Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:MOZAMBIQUE: PEOPLE REELING UNDER EC
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 92 15:03:28 GMT
Organization: Netcom
Reply-To: barnhart@netcom.com

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: MOZAMBIQUE: PEOPLE REELING UNDER ECONOMIC REFORM /SERIES/


an inter press service feature

by benilde santos

maputo, aug 11 (ips) -- the mozambique government of president
joaquim chissano, with an about face on the marxist policies of
the ruling frelimo party, introduced market-based reforms in
1987 in a bid to revamp a war-torn economy.

the reforms, induced by the world bank and the international
monetary fund (imf), following predictable lines, saw the
scrapping of subsidies on essential services, such as education
and health in a country brought to its knees by a 17-year-old
civil war in this former portuguese colony.

in the last six months, the metical (the national currency)
has been devalued by 35 percent. the official rate of the dollar
is now 2,900 meticais. the minimum wage is 40,000 meticais while
inflation stands at about 50 percent.

the programme for economic rehabilitation, known by its
portuguese acronym pre, has a 'social dimension' targeted at the
most vulnerable 10 percent of the population. but in one of the
most brutal guerilla campaigns in recent history, an entire
society of 15 million people has been affected by the war waged
by renamo rebels led by afonso dhlakama.

millions of refugees have been forced to flee this
potentially rich south-east african country, and as always it is
the children that suffer most. around 200,000 are either orphans
or abandoned, according to figures broadcast over radio
mozambique monday. about 500,000 children under 15 years old
have no access to education.

in maputo alone, officials say at least 1,000 children roam
the streets of the mozambican capital, living off the remains of
meals scavenged from garbage cans.

most of these children have been abandoned by their parents who
cannot meet their daily needs. despite their tender age, many of
these children are already smoking or taking drugs as part of a
street-life sub-culture.

according to the ministry of education, 27.2 percent of the
street children live by begging, eight percent look after cars,
52.4 percent work as porters and 1.7 percent do fishing. nothing
is specified for the remaining 10.7 percent.

one of the street children in maputo is paulino. he fled his
home village in chibuto, 200 km north of here, following an
attack by renamo in 1991. (more/ips)


mozambique:

''my family scattered, and i never saw any of them again'',
he told ips. ''i eat garbage because i'm hungry'', adds paulino
who says he does not know whether his parents are alive or not.

''i came to maputo in a car, and i've been working collecting
fares (on the privately-owned mini-buses that have become a
major form of transport in the city)'', he says. ''i decided to
stay in maputo because i thought i'd be better protected here
against renamo''.

some churches here provide food, shelter and training centres
for the abandoned children. in the centres the children acquire
skills such as carpentry, motor mechanics and metalworks.

''most of them are orphans, children displaced by the war, or
have simply been abandoned by their families because of family
rows or hunger'', sister luisa sitti of the catholic church's
santa maria centre told ips.

sitti says the centre was set up after ''one of these boys
asked for money. we told him that we didn't have any, but if he
wanted, he could stay with us and learn to sew. the boy
accepted.

''we gave him food and a blanket. the following day the boy
returned with four of his friends. the number went on
increasing, and now there are 150 of them.

''the children work and beg every day in order to provide
their own sustenance or to contribute to the family income'',
says a report from the ministry of health.

it emphasises that it is not only war and hunger, but also
economic measures such as pre which has pushed increasing
numbers of children onto the streets.

the report warns that the switch to a market economy is
reducing children's educational opportunities because of the
high cost of fees, school books and other material. over 40
percent of children who enter school never complete their
education.

a primary school pupil pays between 3,000 and 4,000 meticais
a year for school books only. a mozambican family generally has
a miminum of six children.

ten-year-old arlindo mabumbe now lives with his parents in the
suburb of maxaquene. ''we used to live in gaza, but we've come to
maputo because of the war'', he says. ''my work is to look after and
wash cars. i don't go to school because my father has no
money'', he adds. ''the money i earn i hand over at home''.

''i left home because my stepmother maltreated me. now i roam
about with my friends and we eat garbage'', another child told ips,
as he chewed on a lump of fish he had retrived from a rubbish bin.
(end/ips/bs/pf/apc/92)


-- 
Aaron (Barnhart@netcom.com) -- posting from Evanston, Illinois