In the impoverished village of Galufu, near Malawi's commercial capital Blantyre, Lina Kaliati has become certain of only one thing for herself and her six orphaned grandchildren: death.

The 25kg bag of maize she harvested from the poorly nourished soil is her annual produce. It will last her at most three weeks, and she has no alternatives - unless donors respond to a special United Nations appeal for help for southern Africa.

In a video recording by the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) this week, Kaliati, 82, narrates the misery of being too old yet having to summon up the strength to till fields and scrounge for food to feed a large family of Aids orphans. Her misery illustrates the plight of 10,7 million people in southern Africa facing famine unless donors urgently respond to the $200-million (about R1,28-billion) UN appeal.

Millions of people need urgent assistance in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique, according to Michael Huggins, the regional spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP)."Hunger has once again returned to haunt southern Africa," he said. "We need urgent assistance now to avert a major catastrophe."

Zimbabwe and Malawi jointly account for about 8 million of the 10,7 million people facing hunger, with 1 million in Zambia and the remainder in Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique. A combination of poor rains, lack of farming inputs, poor management and a lack of human capacity due to the devastation caused by HIV and Aids across the region has once again taken its toll on food security, threatening to wreak unprecedented havoc. And children and the elderly are most vulnerable.

"The old grannies love their orphaned grandchildren. They look after them as their own children, but the old are often too weak to farm and raise food," said Sarah Crowe of Unicef.

In another village near Blantyre, Edna Ngozo, 76, is also looking after two grandchildren orphaned by Aids. Her husband is dead and she has been unable to harvest a thing. She told Unicef of the trauma of going for up to five days without any food for her and the two orphans. This is her routine.

Aida Girma, Unicef's country representative for Malawi, said at least 1 million of the 4 million in Malawi needing urgent help were children under five.

The fields of southern Malawi are virtually empty. The dried-out husks of carefully planted maize, sorghum and cotton blow in the wind, while in the villages people forage for wild berries and dig up the roots of palm trees for their evening meal. Fifty percent of all children in Malawi were chronically malnourished, said Girma.

The hungry have run out of options. Many small-scale farmers plant cotton as a cash crop to raise money to supplement their diet, but this year drought destroyed most of the harvest.

HIV and Aids has aggravated the problem, with around 24 percent of Malawi's 11 million people infected.

Many adult men and women have either died or are too weak to do anything, so the very young and the elderly find themselves assuming the burden of feeding their families.

Robert Nkaramba, 15, has never been to school. When he was younger his parents could not afford school fees. Now his father is dead and his mother and sister recently tested HIV-positive. They are too weak to work. Poor rains killed the family's pitiful harvest, leaving Nkaramba with no option but to walk seven hours to nearby Mozambique to try to find work to feed his mother, aunt and 15 siblings and cousins.

"When we begin to run short of food I go and spend six days working for a farmer in Mozambique," said Nkaramba. "I till the fields, plant seeds, clear weeds and sleep outside. It's rough, but I have no choice." For a week's work Nkaramba receives a 15kg bag of maize. As he spoke, his mother looked on. "I used to be able to work, but when I go out in the fields now, I collapse," she said. "If I could get better food I might have more strength to look after my children."

In Lesotho, predictions of above-normal rainfall this year by the Lesotho meteorological department hardly inspire 32-year-old Palisa Malie. She lost her job in a clothing and textile factory some months ago, along with more than 14 000 others countrywide, thanks to cheap Chinese goods that have flooded the world's markets.

Malie gains no relief from normal rainfall because she is too weak to farm. She and her four-year-old daughter both have Aids.

Mads Lofvall, the WFP's deputy country director for Lesotho, said a humanitarian crisis was looming due to rising poverty levels, massive job losses and the high incidence of HIV/Aids.

"The triple effect of poverty, HIV/Aids and weak capacity is taking a toll on the country. The government can no longer cope in providing assistance to the needy and sick."

About 30 percent of Lesotho's 2.2 million people have HIV; one of the highest infection rates in the world. More than 450 000 people there will need food aid for the next 12 months.

The high prevalence of HIV causes households to spend their meagre resources on health care, leaving nothing for investment in agriculture.

At its best, Lesotho produces 30 percent of its food and needs outside help to acquire the rest. Even though droughts are frequent, 40-year-old Teboho Mofolo blames the Lesotho government for failing to harness the abundant water in the Lesotho Highlands during times of good rains. Most of it is exported to South Africa and Mofolo says the proceeds are not reinvested in agriculture.

"This is suffering in the land of the plenty," he said.

In Zimbabwe, where hunger is as widespread as it is in Malawi, and has been exacerbated by President Robert Mugabe's disastrous land policies, even the usually stubborn government has begun to admit it faces a huge crisis.

A cabinet minister, Flora Bhuka, warned newly resettled farmers to become more productive or lose their land to those who can use it. But most new farmers lack inputs, with the country facing serious seed, fertiliser and fuel shortages, making donor intervention even more urgent.

Only about 15 percent of the required $200 million has been raised, and Huggins warned that time was running out: "The food is needed now, not when the crisis has escalated." He said it took the UN up to four months to source and move food. Any delay would rebound on the poor.