DATE=3/15/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=UNICEF / CONGO-KINSHASA (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260219
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations says the civil war in
Congo-Kinshasa is taking a heavy toll on the health
and well being of the country's women and children.
Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports a UNICEF official says
the situation for women and children in the country is
among the worst in the world.
TEXT: UNICEF says women and children in Congo-
Kinshasa are paying a heavy price because of war and
three-decades of neglect under former Zairian
President Mobutu Sese Seko.
The UNICEF representative in Congo-Kinshasa, Martin
Mogwanja, says the destruction of social services
under the Mobutu government had a serious impact on
the status of children's health, nutrition, and
education. He says these problems were compounded by
the war that toppled the leader and the second civil
war that started one-year after President Laurent
Kabila took power.
/// MOGWANJA ACT ONE ///
The second war has also resulted in massive
looting, destruction, displacement of
population, and again further erosions in the
capacity of communities and the State to provide
social services, such as education, health,
nutrition, water and sanitation, etc. to the
children and the women of the Congo.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Mogwanja says Congo-Kinshasa has one of the
highest infant mortality rates in the world. He says
one of every five children in the country dies before
his or her fifth birthday.
He also says malnutrition rates are extremely high in
Congo-Kinshasa. He says studies show up to 30-percent
of children under age five grow up stunted because
they do not get enough food.
The UNICEF representative says maternal mortality rate
is about 18-hundred per 100-thousand births. He says
some parts of the country have recorded four-thousand
deaths of mothers for 100-thousand births.
/// MOGWANJA ACT TWO ///
But, even at one-thousand-800, this means that
women are taking an extremely high risk in every
pregnancy and delivery that they undertake, that
they experience. And, in a situation where you
have multiple births as you can understand and
also births starting very young and continuing
until relatively high ages, women over their
lifetime are actually taking an extremely high
risk in terms of childbirth.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Mogwanja says only 35-percent of children in
Congo-Kinshasa are enrolled in primary schools. He
says the number of street children is growing in urban
areas because many children do not go to school and
their parents are not able to care for them. In
addition, he says many children under age 14 are
engaged in child labor, principally in diamond mines.
(SIGNED)
NEB/LS/JWH/RAE
15-Mar-2000 11:04 AM EDT (15-Mar-2000 1604 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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