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Red Cross offering food aid and medication
Bulawayo Agenda
October 23, 2008

Victoria Falls

Yesterday the Red Cross Society delivered food aid for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis patients. It's a generally accepted notion that taking medication on empty stomachs worsens ailments. Lack of basic commodities and the inaccessibility of sufficient money to buy food have led to many people going for days without food. Hunger has forced many Zimbabweans to eat indigestible things like rinds and dried seeds. Eating such things has resulted in many people suffering from constipation. Amongst the people who lack sufficient food are those who have to take medication daily but are failing to do so as they are advised to take medication after having eaten satiating food. Health conditions are worsened by taking medication on empty stomachs in as much as they are worsened by not taking medication at all.

The Red Cross Society comes at the opportune time when Zimbabweans are dying of starvation and related ailments. The Red Cross Society is providing food to those receiving critical medical treatment such as Anti Retro Viral (ARVs) and Daily Observation Treatment (DOT). DOT is treatment for tuberculosis patients that is taken on a daily basis. The food stuffs were delivered at Chamabondo Primary School and more is expected. The distribution of these food stuffs will start on Monday. The Red Cross Society is also running the same programme in Dete. Starvation has blanketed the whole of Zimbabwe but its effects have been heavily felt by patients and vulnerable people more than the general public. In light of this, humanitarian organisations are going a long way in curbing food shortages that have reached unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, Environment Africa has suspended the distribution of maize and groundnut seeds amidst fears that people now wash off the fertilizer and eat the grain.

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