When there is no money to buy tinned food, frozen bags of meat, rice or even ground maize, people turn to natural resources, like hunting rats.
When there is no money to buy tinned food, frozen bags of meat, rice or even ground maize, people turn to natural resources, like hunting rats.
This is what two Rhodes University researchers have discovered when they travelled deep into rural Transkei.
Listening to Sarah Kaschula, a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Science, and Dylan McGarry, a Masters student, talk about their research is like listening to a story of modern-day Tarzan and Jane.
The researchers studied rural communities in central KwaZulu-Natal, Northern KZN and the former Transkei and found that Aids orphans, who often live with their grandmothers, survived on the nutrition offered by the meat of birds, rodents and wild fruit and weeds.
We discovered that wild natural resources are being eaten by vulnerable groups more than we anticipated, specifically bush meat. We were surprised that birds and small rodents were being eaten.”
The researchers expected to find that it was more likely to be rabbits and imifino (wild spinach) that made up the bulk of the diet. According to Kaschula, 26, the children used slings, assegais and traps to hunt animals. “I even came across some kids who used bows and arrows
. They’re very creative.” The pony-tailed McGarry who is 22-years old, marvelled at the pulley systems created in the forests near villages.
“They have nooses they pull, there are pulley systems. You wouldn’t believe Kaschula cuts in: “They’ll often get together in groups. They drive rats through the mealie fields.”
McGarry, who stretched his arms to show the size of the rats, added: “Some of these rats are formidable.” The community in the Mount Ayliff area had running water for which people paid a monthly fee of R60.
“No one uses electricity for cooking. Most rely on fuel wood. The average household income for about seven people is about R750 per month. So the situation is quite desperate.”
It is little wonder that children experience stunted growth due to a poor variety of food groups. “A kid will be 13 years old, but I would have guessed they were nine,” said Kaschula.
Kaschula and McGarry have been working on their research for the past year after receiving funding from the Rockerfeller Brothers Foundation. “The idea was to look at the relationship between biodiversity and HIV/Aids – looking at solutions and interventions.
Often when you talk about wild natural resources and HIV you talk about food security and household food security.
The link between Aids and food security has been established – households are suffering, less people are earning money, there is less productive labour, you’ve got kids becoming more vulnerable, there is not enough food to eat.
It’s a big problem.” The pair conducted interviews and held discussions with the community members. “The children were the most interesting,” said Kaschula, who considers herself a resource conservation biologist.
It is a three-and-a-half-year project that they hope to wrap up by mid-2008. Next year they plan to work with non-governmental organisations.“These are just the preliminary findings,” said Kaschula of the data they collected. “It’s been interesting so far.
As people become poorer and more people with Aids turn back to this, there’s a general awareness that wild foods are good for you.
Boys have always been hunting birds, but it is now more critical with increasing poverty and food security, especially since there is less bush meat and the question is, is it sustainable?”
“The government needs to know about these existing interventions and their importance when it designs HIV/Aids programmes,” Kaschula explained.
