Church Leaders Call For Urgent Assistance As Babies Are Born With Kwashiorkor

The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) has appealed for assistance as a large number of women in the country has been giving birth to babies with Kwashiorkor.

The revelation was made on Thursday by ZCBC president Archbishop Robert Ndlovu during the launch of an urgent appeal for US$1 million dollars for food aid against the backdrop of the worsening drought in Zimbabwe. Ndlovu said:

I met my health coordinator yesterday briefing me about the hospitals. You know we work in hospitals. One of the things which really struck me was the mothers giving birth to children already showing signs of not being healthy, with kwashiorkor. She was saying to me, the danger is that this will affect these children for the rest of their life even in mental development.

Ndlovu added that due to famine, expecting mothers were failing to get adequate food and those who would have given birth do not produce enough milk for their newly born babies.

He added that ZCBC had raised $200 000 of the targeted US$1 million which will be used for mothers in Mudzi, Chivi, Hwange, Mbire, Bulilima, Zaka, Mwenezi, Chirumanzi, Gweru South, Chipinge, Mount Darwin, Mutoko, Hwedza, Mutoko and Chikomba, Gokwe North, Matabeleland South and Harare.

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