An income of 1500 dalasi a month leaves the person with only 50 dalasi to spend on a daily basis. Four sweet potatoes cost 20 dalasi. Six onions also cost 20 dalasi, while three carrots cost 20 dalasi. Hence, it is becoming common for families to exclude vegetables from their diet and feed on rice and oil with a chicken leg or fish that is not sufficient to give a balance diet to even one person. People are wondering why diabetes is so rampant. In a situation where many families depend on rice pudding with only sugar without milk one should expect many nutritional deficiencies. Anybody who claims that the Gambia has reduced the problem of hunger should be asked to state the average income of the Gambian in relation to the cost of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Any family of five that earns 1500 dalasi a month cannot afford one meal a day and is living in abject poverty. Such family members must live by begging. Many send their children to neighbours to play from sun up to sun down so that they could eat. One finds it difficult to see scrap metals around. Young children go about to scavenge for such metals for sale to dealers. Poverty is real. It is a threat to health and general welfare and needs to be exposed and tackled head on and not covered up and ignored. ]]>
