In Mozambique, unsafe water and poor sanitation is killing almost 55 children every day. The country has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world: 246 out of every 1000 live births die within their first five years. Thirteen per cent of these deaths are directly attributable to a lack of access to clean water, proper sanitation and poor hygiene practices, says Unicef.

The number of people with no education in SA is decreasing, according to the results of Census 2001, released by Statistics SA this week. This bodes well for the country as it shows that the education system is reaching more and more people.

Many schools in Kenya are coping with a 100% or more increase in student numbers that are triggered by the new government's free and compulsory primary education policy. Average class sizes have risen while facilities remained the same. With the influx of so many new children, latrine use might go up to 200 pupils per latrine. Poor hygiene at schools may add to the region's health problems, where already over 85% of illnesses reported at local clinics are water-related.

Liberia's only major referral hospital, the John F. Kennedy Medical Centre in the capital, Monrovia, can no longer contain the influx of cholera patients, most of whom are internally displaced persons, the acting Minister of Health Nathaniel Bartee said on Wednesday.