Public Health

Although it's called the Black Theatre Festival, this biennial gathering of African-American artists draws creative people from all over the nation working in a variety of mediums. Kwame Dawes, the poet in residence at the University of South Carolina, will present his multimedia productions titled Wisteria and Hope during the festival. [For complete performance listings, see page 20.] Wisteria and Hope are two separate pieces performed back to back.

Tune in to North Carolina Public Radio's "The Story" to hear Kwame Dawes talk about HOPE, his poetry that will be performed at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, on August 6 and 7.

The nation blessed with Africa's largest oil reserves and some of its most fertile lands has a problem. It cannot feed its 140 million people, and relatively minor reductions in rainfall could set off a regional food catastrophe, experts say.

Nestled in a remote northern Honduras valley, Santa Lucia and the surrounding area are home to 20,000 rural inhabitants. These families rely solely on their agrarian skills for a subsistent living. But according to UNICEF, over one-third of Honduran infants are malnourished due to their indigenous lifestyle.

For centuries, nomads from the Fulani ethnic group have driven their cattle across thousands of miles of African grazing lands, through countries including Mali, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria. But Nigeria is Africa's most populated country. And more and more land there is being used for food production.

In the far north of Nigeria, the situation has put farmers and nomads at odds with each other. David Hecht reports from the small village of Yardanko.

Samuel Loewenberg narrates images from Guatemala's malnutrition clinics.

Although most of Guatemala's children have enough food to eat, many are not receiving the right kind of food. Samuel Loewenberg reports on the country's growing crisis of chronic malnutrition.

In the clean, toy-filled interior of a clinic in Chiquimula, a 9-year-old girl appears to be frowning. Her name is Domitila, and her muscles are too weak to form a smile (see webvideo). Her body is fragile: arms and legs wasted, patches of hair missing, the veins in her legs forming a black web-like pattern that shows through her delicate skin.

Maria Digna Ramos Mendoza wishes for a pretty house and a large basin to store fresh water for her five children. But, when she wakes up, "there is nothing."

Mendoza lives in a one-room, mud hut with her children. Her husband left four years ago to work in the United States, where he met another woman. She said whenever they call him asking for money, he says that he is more sick and needs money sent to him instead of to them.

After speaking with the mayor of Santa Lucia and several locals about Shoulder to Shoulder, it is evident that mis-communication between the locals and the non-profit has caused recent strife in the community.

Shoulder to Shoulder currently operates seven clinics throughout the southern region of Intibuca, six of which are primary health centers owned by the Honduran government. These centers run under the government's standardized healthcare system and charge five lempira per visit, the equivalent of 25 cents.

Dr Kwame Dawes will stage LIVE! HOPE! LOVE! at the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts at the University of the West Indies on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Working in the midst of a military coup brings unexpected hardships. The Honduran government has shut off power across the entire country on numerous occasions, trying to squelch any outgoing or incoming information on Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president. One power outage lasted nearly 24 hours, preceded by a series of five brief outages. Interestingly enough, as I sit here and write this, the power has once again been shut off.