Inter Press Service | 19 Feb 2010

By Kristin Palitza

CAPE TOWN , Feb 19, 2010 (IPS) - South Africa’s children, the country’s most vulnerable population group, will benefit through the increase in social grants recently outlined in the national budget.

South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan’s national budget speech on Feb. 17 has largely been met with approval by development experts for the social grant increases.

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Mail & Guardian | 21 Aug 09

By Kristin Palitza

With the back of her hand, she wipes beads of sweat from her forehead and adjusts her colourful headscarf that protects her from the sun. It is mid-morning, but Maggie Mbovu has already put in a good few hours of hard work, tilling the soil of her community garden.

Together with four other women, she has planted cabbages, carrots, onions and potatoes, which will soon be harvested and sold through an organic vegetable marketing scheme initiated and managed by non-governmental agricultural organisation Abalimi Bezekhaya (Farmers of Home).

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Inter Press Service | 7 Aug 2009

Kristin Palitza interviews AIMEE ANSARI, acting policy and advocacy coordinator DRC for Oxfam GB

KINSHASA, Aug 7 (IPS) - A government offensive against rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that began in January has dramatically increased sexual violence in the provinces of North and South Kivu.

A survey of 569 civilians living in 20 conflict-ridden communities conducted by Oxfam found people live in constant fear of both government troops and rebels. Civilians have endured rape, torture and forced labour since Congo's army launched a joint operation with Rwanda's armed forces in late January against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, who have operated out of the region since the aftermath of Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

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Inter Press Service | 20 Apr 2009

by Kristin Palitza

DURBAN, Apr 20 (IPS) - Hundreds of traders at the Early Morning market in Durban fear the municipality’s plans to turn the area into an upscale shopping mall that will cost them their livelihoods. The redevelopment is one of many currently underway in South Africa’s urban centres to upgrade city infrastructure for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

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NGO Pulse | February 2009

By Kristin Palitza

Six months after the violent attacks against foreign nationals in South Africa have ebbed down, xenophobia has become a topic that is little discussed in the public sphere. Yet, human rights activists are well aware that the underlying issues that caused the violence have not been solved but continue to bubble beneath the surface.

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Inter Press Service | 24 Feb 2009

By Kristin Palitza

ROME, Feb 24 (IPS) - Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year in the developing world. Food aid – which mainly contains nutrient-poor carbohydrates - does little to address the absence of a diverse diet that would prevent the condition.

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Inter Press Service | 15 Dec 2008

Kristin Palitza interviews Gertrude Matsebe and Louiza Duncker, Sustainable Human Settlement group, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

PRETORIA, Dec 15 (IPS) - Sanitation is a key element of health, and hygiene a basic need for survival. Yet, millions of South Africans, especially those living in rural areas, do not have access to basic services, such as clean, running water and sanitary toilet systems.

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Inter Press Service | 7 Nov 2008

Kristin Palitza interviews PETER DRAPER, South African Institute of International Affairs

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 7 (IPS) - Countries around the world aim to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2015 as one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

With only seven years left to the deadline, Peter Draper, head of the Development Through Trade Programme of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), highlights the importance of linking domestic and regional trade policies to developmental strategies as a step towards poverty alleviation.

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Mail & Guardian | 24 Oct 2008  

The Sonke PhotoVoice Project allows children to talk about their wants and needs. Kristin Palitza reports

Childhood in rural KwaZulu-Natal is short and often interrupted by struggles youngsters should usually not be faced with. Poverty, hunger, lack of social services, crime and HIV are just some of the struggles children shouldn't have to face but do.

Schoolchildren in the village of Nkandla, in the heart of Zululand, have a variety of problems that may not even occur to adults: from dusty roads that cause asthma to being forced to walk an hour each day to school because of inadequate public transport. Some children wish for running water and electricity to cut down on the many hours they spend every day collecting firewood and fetching water from the river.

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