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Show The Sad Saga HUNGER y IS hy ~ SHE Of Asia’s Women East is East and West is West—and Americangirls hope it stays that way! By CINDY ADAMS American women are heading into the 1970's convinced that they muststruggle for their “rights.” But the females who really could use some are the women of Asia. Sari Astronova gets up every morning at five, brushes her reddened stained teeth with a twig, and goes to the forest to cut the morning wood. She lugs the wood back to her hut—by a strap slung around her forehead—andbusies herself hauling up the morning water in buckets from the community well. Next, she prepares a breakfast of tea, vegeta- bles, and rice that she cooks on a mud hearth. She wakes her husband —whohasbeen sleeping soundlyall Sari lives in the kingdom of Nepal, high in the Himalaya Mountains, only 80 miles from the border of Communist China. As far as “women’s rights” are concerned, Nepal— like many other Asian lands—is a country rushing headlong into the 15th century. O. a recent tour of Asia, I was struck by the manner in which women of the east are still bound to the discriminatory customs of antiquity. The Nepaii wife has no parties, club meetings, PTA, no bridge games,canasta luncheons, or shopping sprees. She has neither tv nor radio and no books or magazines, since she can’t read. When the master of the hut has friends over, she ministers and serves but does not partake of the pleasantries. She goes nowhere outside her home and the fieid except this time—andtells him his meal is ready. When breakfast is over and on wash day. That’s when she goes her baby has been fed, she scrubs her pots and pans, puts the child, papoose-style, on her back, and goes to the river with other women and washes out her linen and clothes with animal fat. out into the fields with her husband. Sari had no say in her marriage Shackled to a plough, she pulls side by side with the oxen. ——in Nepal, such things are arranged (Continued on page 10) Margaret was found in a back lane of Calcutta, lying in her doorway, unconscious from hunger. Inside, her mother had just died in childbirth. You can see from the expression on Margaret's face that she doesn’t understand why her mother can’t get up, or why her father doesn't come home, or why the dull throb in her stomach won't go away. What you can’t see is that Margaretis dying of malnutrition. She has periods of fainting, her eyes are strangely glazed. Next will come a bloated stomach, falling hair, parched skin. And finally, death from malnutrition, a killer that claims 10,000 lives every day. Meanwhile, in America we eat 4.66 pounds of food a day per person, then throw away enough garbage to feed a family of six in India. In fact, the average dog in America has a higher protein diet than Margaret! If you were to suddenly join the ranks of 1% billion people who are forever hungry, your next meal would be a bowl of rice, day after tomorrow a piece of fish the size of a silver dollar, later in the week more rice—maybe. Hard-pressed by the natural disasters and phenomenal birth rate, the Indian government is valiantly trying to curb what Mahatma Gandhicalled “The Eternal Compulsory Fast.” But Margaret's story can have a happy ending. For only $12.00 a month, you can sponsor her, or thousands of other desperate youngsters. You will receive the child’s picture. personal history, and the opportunity to exchange letters, Christmas cards—and priceless friendship. Since 1938, American sponsors have found this to be an intimate, person-toperson way of sharing their blessings with youngsters around the world. So won't you help? Today? Sponsors urgently needed this month for childreu in:India, Brazil, Taiwan(Formosa) and Hong Korg, (Or let us select a child for you from our emergency list.) Write today: Verent J. Mills CHRISTIAN CHILDREN’S FUND, Inc. Rickmong, va. 23204 I wish to sponsor [] boy [J giri in (Country )___ Family Weekly, January 17,1971 9 = Tae aS Sate (C0 Choose achild whoneeds nme ‘most. I will pay $12 a month. I enclose first payment of $_______. Send mechild's AmmaneBRee name, story, address and picture. i I cannot sponsor a child but want to VG cB 0 Please send me more ‘information gS Cyee 6oe ey ip— Registered (VFA080) wih te US, Gover oe Advisory Committee on Voluntary ForAid. Gifts are tax deductible. Canadians: Write 1407 Yonge, Toronto 7 FW 3610 |