Women bear brunt of food plight

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By Donna Bryson ASSOCIATED PRESS

BULAWAYO, Swaziland

Phetsile Ndwandwe - short, skinny and 23 years old - accepts an apple from a development worker and nibbles at it, stripping the peel with her teeth before handing the fruit to Siphokazi, her baby daughter.

Siphokazi manages a bite of the apple, the first fruit she has had in months, then thanks her mother with a kiss.

Mrs. Ndwandwe allows herself only the peel.

The mother's sacrifice, health authorities say, is typical and creates a problem across the developing world. In hard times, these women tend to think of themselves last. This puts their families at risk, the specialists say, because malnourished mothers become malfunctioning mothers.

Mrs. Ndwandwe lost her sugar cane plot after falling behind in payments to a village cooperative. So she supports 15-month-old Siphokazi and her 4-year-old daughter, Setsebile, by working in a neighbor's garden in this village in southern Swaziland, taking her payments in vegetables.

Ancient traditions and modern circumstances often combine to place the burden on women to feed their poor families. Researchers say women do as much as 80 percent of the farm work in poor countries. And - with food and fertilizer prices rising and AIDS and the global financial meltdown taking their toll - women such as Mrs. Ndwandwe are straining under growing responsibilities.

"We eat whatever we can get," said Mrs. Ndwandwe, after describing a breakfast of cornmeal porridge. She said her husband had gotten sick and died but wouldn't say what illness he had. When asked what the family would have for lunch, she said she had no idea.

She has seen the price of an apple rise 50 percent in recent months to the equivalent of about 15 cents. She used to take the bus to town to buy a bag of apples to sell to her neighbors, the small profits supplementing her garden work.

Now, she can't afford the bus fare - and few of her neighbors can afford fruit.