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Aureliana Siki is soon to give birth to her third child. But she seems far more anxious about her second child than the imminent arrival of another."She just won't eat,she's always getting sick and having diarrhea,"she says of her 18-month-old daughter,Amelia Jessica."I am so worried she is going to die."Amelia clings to her mother,listlessly.She weighs just seven kilos and is officially classified as having severe malnutrition.Aureliana is aware of one of the reasons why her daughter is severely malnourished."The problem is that we had a bad harvest this year,"she says."Instead of harvesting the normal four sacks of rice this year,we only had two.And instead of 20 bunches of maize,we only had 10,"she explains."I am giving my children three meals a day but I have had to reduce the quantity in the portions."Other women in Aureliana's village of Tes in a remote part of West Timor confirm that they too have lost about half of their production this year.They say some families are only eating twice a day.The reason is clear:climateunpredictability.Normally the wet and dry seasons are distinct.It rains from November to March,and then is dry from April to October.This year the rainy season was short,causing
drought in some areas."Last year the rain did arrive in November,"explains Yosefina Lake,a 39-year-old woman also from Tes,"but then it was dry again in December and we lost a lot of our crop."The women are anxious and sad.They say many children in the village are losing weight. They know because every week they go to the government health post in the village,known as the Posyandu, to have their children weighed and measured...
To read more go to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6919730.stm
As in the days of Noah...
