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MANKHOKWE, Malawi (AP) - Dona Kijani dives into a crocodile-infested river for water lilies, gambling with death to pull up tubers that are barely edible and give her children diarrhea. She says it is her only source of food.
For Kijani and many of her neighbors in the dirt-poor southern tip of Malawi, water lilies have become a staple part of the diet as drought withers corn crops, worsening a malnutrition problem aggravated by poverty, corruption and AIDS.
"I have nothing else to give to my children," the widowed mother of three young children said with a grimace, holding out some of the small, bitter-tasting, gnarled roots.
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