Durban - School holidays are meant to be a fun time for children, but for *Luyanda they mean one less meal in her already meagre diet.
She is one of many South African pupils living in poverty.
The 2016 SA Childhood Review has revealed 63 percent of children live in poverty. KwaZulu-Natal is one of the top three provinces where they are most impoverished.
When the Sunday Tribune arrived at Luyanda’s home at 1pm, she had last eaten the night before. According to the 10-year-old, eating once a day was typical during holidays.
“I ate dry uphuthu and had tea last night. My uncle usually buys me vetkoek during the day. I’m waiting for that. Then I will eat in the evening.”
Luyanda lives with her grandmother, two uncles and her mother in their a three-room house in Inanda. And since the adults are all unemployed, the only guaranteed income is a R350 child support grant.
According to her gran, the family supplements the grant with piecework, but because of its unpredictability, some months are worse than others.
With rising food prices, the family is struggling to make ends meet.
“When I get the grant money, I struggle to decide what to buy because everything is expensive. What I’m able to buy is half of what I bought two years ago. Feeding five people on R350 is just impossible, nothing lasts till month-end,” she said.
When things get harder, Luyanda attends her Grade 5 classes on an empty stomach. “When the schools are not closed and I don’t eat in the morning, my friends share their lunch with me and I eat the food supplied at school. I like being at school because I get to eat all the things I don’t eat here at home.”
She said she was used to the hunger but wished her family was working. “I used to cry when I was hungry at school, but now I’m used to it, I can focus in class even when I haven’t eaten.”
Her gran said she was used to the poverty but couldn’t stand to see her granddaughter suffer. “I worry a lot about my baby; it hurts me when there is no food in the house, when she needs things for school I take from the grant money.”
Food is not the only problem Luyanda faces as a result of poverty. “My school shoes are size 11, but I wear size 12. They are so tight it’s painful when I walk, but I can’t have other shoes because there is no money. Hopefully, when school opens in July, I can have new shoes.”
Her dream for now is to “live like other kids, in a bigger house where there’s always food”.
Shelter and food are not the only things children need.
Another 8-year-old wishes his grant money could buy more food, fix the house and buy him toys. He lives in a four-room mud house in Inanda, where he sometimes sleeps on the floor. Above his sleeping area is a caved-in roof and bricks are missing from the wall.
He said the weather determined how much he could sleep. “Sometimes I see stars, which is cool. But when it rains and there is too much wind, the water gets in the house and I have to wake up.
“It scares me; it looks like the roof will fall on me.”
He said he woke up with a sore throat and stuffy nose when it was cold.
His grandmother said there was no money to fix the house because the family income was a child support grant and her husband’s pension to take care of the family of nine.
“All the money goes to food, but even that is never enough. As a mother, it’s my duty to make sure that everyone is taken care of. There is R2 750 at the end of the month.” But, she says, each individual in the family lives on R305, a far cry from the R753 a month Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini said beneficiaries should be able to live on for “adequate food as well as additional non-food items”.
The Community Survey 2016, released by Statistics SA this week, showed that 2.2 million South Africans are missing a meal a day, 14.8 percent in KZN. The report also showed that nearly a fifth of households surveyed ran out of money to buy food.
The Jojisa home in Cato Crest is cooking its last cups of rice two days before month-end and there is no money to buy more.
Unemployed mother Nonthethelelo and her 13-year-old daughter, Sisanda live in a shack. Like other poverty-stricken families, they struggle to buy food and improve their living conditions. They also rely on a child support grant.
Nontethelelo said: “It’s hard to take care of a household on a child support grant because it is meant to help parents raise kids, but when you rely on it you feel the pinch and you find it hard to afford food that will help the kids grow and make them strong.”
She sells vetkoek on the street but said the business was not growing. “I get R50 on a good day. That money goes towards stock and buying food at home, I can’t grow the business because there is always something to buy for the home and I use that R50.”
Sisanda said she was proud of her home although she got wet inside when it rained. She doesn’t have enough school uniforms and food but those are not her biggest worries - her mother’s health is.
She said she worried since her mother had an operation on her foot and was sick when it was cold.
“When my mother is ill, I get anxious because it means she can’t sell vetkoek. I know how much that money helps us, so I worry about how she will buy food and pay for electricity. I go to school knowing there might not be food when I come back. That hurts.”
KZN Social Development spokesman Vukani Mbhele said the department was aware of child poverty in the province and had intervened.
“We are working with communities to bring relief by identifying needy households, including children. We then make interventions in terms of nutritious food and school uniforms.”
While these children in need wait for intervention, food insecurity and proper housing remain their biggest trials.
What the study found
A need for improvement was identified in these areas:
* Maternal and child primary health care, including antenatal care, physical and mental health screening, psycho-social support and immunisation; the prevention of mother-to-child treatment.
* Nutritional support for pregnant women, mothers and children.
* Support for primary caregivers, including parenting skills and psycho-social support.
* Social services, including birth registration, access to social grants, responsive child protection services and psycho-social support.
* Stimulation for early learning, including access to quality, age-appropriate early learning programmes.
* Not real name
Sunday Tribune