God never forgives the wrong we do to a child: Our shame of child malnutrition
I cannot even begin to fathom the agony a mother must feel, not being able to respond to the hungry cries of her child.
Yet, this is what happens to more than 10 million children who go hungry every day in South Africa.
On Monday, I listened to an interview Cape Talk’s John Maytham conducted with Lori Lake from the Children’s Institute at UCT. It was in response to a press statement the DA issued highlighting the fact “that severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in children younger than five has risen by 26% over the past five years.”
I was shocked.
It is sometimes difficult to visualise or understand what a term like severe acute malnutrition means. UNICEF uses - among others - the wrist circumference of children as a major indicator. A wrist circumference of less than 11.5 cm indicates severe malnutrition. I would like to challenge you to measure 11 cm on a ruler. It is tiny! So imagine how skinny a toddler or 5 year old child must be to have such small wrists.
Malnutrition not only results in severe immediate suffering, but has devastating long term effects on children. Their physical development remains stunted (they don’t grow sufficiently in length or strength) and their brains do not develop correctly.
This in turn has life-long implications in terms of education and employment prospects. This is why malnutrition is often referred to as “slow violence” towards children.
After suffering the agony of severe and chronic hunger many children die agonising deaths. Lori Lake mentioned that severe malnutrition is one of the major factors in 50% of deaths in children under the age of five. Earlier this year the Department of Health revealed that 12, 582 children aged 0 to 5 years have died in hospitals since 2013 due to moderate and severe acute malnutrition. (Compare that to the 11,500 children who died in the war in Yemen during the same period.)
Please pause and consider this for a moment: Twelve and a half thousand innocent children have died in South Africa because they do not have enough to eat.
Just imagine 12,500 little coffins lined up next to one another. Yet, there is no outcry, no state of disaster and more importantly very little action from government!
We can also safely assume with the sharp rise in food prices (the average monthly food basket has increased between 10 and 11% per annum over the last three years) that more and more children will suffer and die.
A study by Black Sash in 2021 titled “Children, Assistance and Food Security” relates harrowing stories of mothers, grandmothers and caregivers going hungry themselves just to be able to give a little food to children.
Lori Lake also related stories of mothers having to feed one child one day and another the next. Can you imagine the horror of being forced to do that?
So what can be done? Of course, this is all related to the scourge of poverty in our society, which needs to be addressed.
However, the most important thing that can and must be done immediately is to increase the Child Support Grant.
The report by Black Sash confirms the importance of this grant not only for the survival of children but often the whole family, since it is frequently the only income for female-headed households.
The grant at the moment is R500 per month – soon to be increased to R510. That is just over R16 per day. However, if the cost of food, clothes, school supplies, transport to school are taken into account it is clearly totally inadequate.
The average Food Poverty Line (the cost to feed a child a basic, nutritional meal) is R744,96 per month. For children aged 3-9 years of age it is a bit lower (they eat less) at around R663 per month.
The Child Support Grant should immediately be increased to R663 which would make a major difference for the most vulnerable in our society. I know that Treasury will argue fiscal constraints. I don’t care. I can think of millions (literally) of wasteful expenditures, so just figure this one out!
In his first speech to Parliament in May 1994 Nelson Mandela declared child hunger “one of the major areas of desperate need in our society” and announced the introduction of the school feeding scheme. This food is often the only meal children of school going age get – something Siya Kolisi wrote so heartbreakingly about in his autobiography.
In addition to the child grant, the school feeding schemes should also be extended and those involved in corruption with the food procurement severely punished. Black Sash also suggested that carers who receive the child support grant should be linked to other essential free basic services such as pre-schools , free school uniform, free school transport, electricity, adequate housing, health care.
Ultimately, we as citizens should also make a contribution. In particular, we must make sure that we pay the women who work for us decent wages – and let’s be honest, R25 per hour is not really a decent wage. We should also help where ever we can with food contributions.
I am always reminded of the words of Fiela Komotie in Daleen Matthee’s book “Fiela’s Child” when she says: “God forgives many things, but he never forgives us the wrong we do to a child.”
Today and in days to come as we sit down for our meals, may we remember the 12 million children in our country whose cries of hunger will not be met.