You need a map in order to find your way there. The
Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto is the largest hospital in the world. It counts 3200 beds and has 6760 people working there. I spent a day in this enormous health facility in South-Africa and was impressed, and inevitably lost my way once or twice. Every day over 2000 patients check in. Almost half of them is hiv positive. The wall painting on the right is putup in the hiv research center.
I leave for South-Africa and Mozambique in two days, when I return end of August my book will be back from the printer's!
Een nacht in een vijzel will be officially presented to the public on September 5. Place of venue is the best location in the country:
Museumcafé Lombok in my own district in the city of Utrecht. If you'd like information on
Een nacht in een vijzel or the book launch,
e-mail my publisher. The day after tomorrow I get on a plane to Joburg... It's been as much as eight (!) months sice I was in Africa. Through this blog you can travel with me the following weeks to Soweto, Maputo, Nampula en Vilankulo.
When Rosita Cherindza was born in 2000, she right away became Mozambique's most famous baby. She was born in a tree top. Her mother had fled there from the
floods that were devastating the southern part of the country. The image of the baby, saved from the tree, went all around the world. The girl was flooded with gifts from abroad and the Mozambican government provided mother and child with a new house and money for the girl's education. The fairy tale did not last. Her father stole and sold everything that had been given to his daughter. The court now
ruled that her father cheated her by selling off all the donated goods and entrusted Rosita's possessions to her mother. Rosita is already seven years old.
Today is World Population Day, and traditionally it is all about mothers and children. Executive director
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid of the UN Population Fund UNFPA gave an invigorating
statement though, pleading to involve men in pregnancy and childbirth. She argues that especially older men who fear losing their daughters or wives are partners in the struggle against
maternal mortality. She believes that African men are willing to change their behaviour, when they are approached in a positive way. In Limpopo, South-Africa, men are even doing the dishes these days, says the UNFPA director.
'I have been raped by comrades before. They force women to sleep with them, even now, because they have the power to do so. And no one dares to speak out.' The culture of violence has never ceased to exist in the South-African ANC, even after the end of apartheid, says
Fezeka Kuzwayo. Kuzwayo is the woman who accused former vice president
Jacob Zuma of
raping her. The rape trial that followed led to Zumas acquittal, because 'the state had not proven the case beyond reasonable doubt.' As it turns out, Kuzwayo and her mother have gotten political asylum in the Netherlands. Dutch correspondent
Kees Broere has the scoop this morning with an interview in
de Volkskrant with the now 32 year old Kuzwayo.
(more)
You need a map in order to find your way there. The Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto is the largest hospital in the world. It counts 3200 beds and has 6760 people working there. I spent a day in this enormous health facility in South-Africa and was impressed, and inevitably lost my way once or twice. Every day over 2000 patients check in. Almost half of them is hiv positive. The wall painting on the right is putup in the hiv research center.
I leave for South-Africa and Mozambique in two days, when I return end of August my book will be back from the printer's! Een nacht in een vijzel will be officially presented to the public on September 5. Place of venue is the best location in the country: Museumcafé Lombok in my own district in the city of Utrecht. If you'd like information on Een nacht in een vijzel or the book launch, e-mail my publisher. The day after tomorrow I get on a plane to Joburg... It's been as much as eight (!) months sice I was in Africa. Through this blog you can travel with me the following weeks to Soweto, Maputo, Nampula en Vilankulo.
When Rosita Cherindza was born in 2000, she right away became Mozambique's most famous baby. She was born in a tree top. Her mother had fled there from the floods that were devastating the southern part of the country. The image of the baby, saved from the tree, went all around the world. The girl was flooded with gifts from abroad and the Mozambican government provided mother and child with a new house and money for the girl's education. The fairy tale did not last. Her father stole and sold everything that had been given to his daughter. The court now ruled that her father cheated her by selling off all the donated goods and entrusted Rosita's possessions to her mother. Rosita is already seven years old.
Today is World Population Day, and traditionally it is all about mothers and children. Executive director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid of the UN Population Fund UNFPA gave an invigorating statement though, pleading to involve men in pregnancy and childbirth. She argues that especially older men who fear losing their daughters or wives are partners in the struggle against maternal mortality. She believes that African men are willing to change their behaviour, when they are approached in a positive way. In Limpopo, South-Africa, men are even doing the dishes these days, says the UNFPA director.
'I have been raped by comrades before. They force women to sleep with them, even now, because they have the power to do so. And no one dares to speak out.' The culture of violence has never ceased to exist in the South-African ANC, even after the end of apartheid, says Fezeka Kuzwayo. Kuzwayo is the woman who accused former vice president Jacob Zuma of raping her. The rape trial that followed led to Zumas acquittal, because 'the state had not proven the case beyond reasonable doubt.' As it turns out, Kuzwayo and her mother have gotten political asylum in the Netherlands. Dutch correspondent Kees Broere has the scoop this morning with an interview in de Volkskrant with the now 32 year old Kuzwayo.
