Swaziland: education and the urban poor
EDUCATION-SWAZILAND: Urban Youth Slipping Through The Cracks
Inter Press Service (subscription) - Rome,Italy
MBABANE, Jan 10 (IPS) - As the new school year begins here many destitute or orphaned children are in need of assistance to pay for their educations. An unknown number of urban youngsters, however, are slipping through the social welfare net. "Impoverished children in the country’s urban areas might run into the thousands," Juanita Mkhonta, a social welfare worker in the central commercial town Manzini, told IPS ... "The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) did a crop assessment survey in May, and when the teams went from house to house we also did a survey of OVC (orphans and vulnerable children)," said Abdoulaye Balde, WFP Country Representative for Swaziland. "The informal settlements at Swaziland’s towns were left out of the survey because the populations were considered transitory," noted Mkhonta ... "There are no traditional authorities there or community committees for NGOs to work with ... "These kids have been lost in a societal change. Swaziland’s government is geared toward traditional rural life. The U.N. agencies and NGOs are also primarily targeting rural areas for assistance. It’s as if the towns do not exist," said Mkhonta ... These children come and go. All we know is their numbers are increasing as the economy gets worse and the AIDS deaths mount ...
Inter Press Service (subscription) - Rome,Italy
MBABANE, Jan 10 (IPS) - As the new school year begins here many destitute or orphaned children are in need of assistance to pay for their educations. An unknown number of urban youngsters, however, are slipping through the social welfare net. "Impoverished children in the country’s urban areas might run into the thousands," Juanita Mkhonta, a social welfare worker in the central commercial town Manzini, told IPS ... "The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) did a crop assessment survey in May, and when the teams went from house to house we also did a survey of OVC (orphans and vulnerable children)," said Abdoulaye Balde, WFP Country Representative for Swaziland. "The informal settlements at Swaziland’s towns were left out of the survey because the populations were considered transitory," noted Mkhonta ... "There are no traditional authorities there or community committees for NGOs to work with ... "These kids have been lost in a societal change. Swaziland’s government is geared toward traditional rural life. The U.N. agencies and NGOs are also primarily targeting rural areas for assistance. It’s as if the towns do not exist," said Mkhonta ... These children come and go. All we know is their numbers are increasing as the economy gets worse and the AIDS deaths mount ...