Uranium exports are also helping to boost export earnings in a move away from reliance on foreign humanitarian aid. Yet natural phenomena continue to hinder progress with the country often being afflicted by severe famines caused by droughts with eight serious episodes in the last 36 years affecting millions leaving them without proper food supplies. Only a third of children in Malawi have access to safe water making childhood disease common. As ever education is the key to change, however poverty is so rife, many Malawi children spurn school in order to beg for food for themselves and their families. In fact, some three-quarters of secondary school-aged children have left education to either work or stay at home provide care for their families and nearly 38% of children in Malawi (5-17yrs) are engaged in some form of child labour. Those children who do attend school benefit from learning in general but specifically regarding how to develop the agricultural base of their country and how to prevent the spread of AIDS. All this costs money of course and, without international aid, these much needed programmes for change would falter. For more about Malawi, check out our profile articles above.