05/02/2022
CONTACT
FAMILY STRUGGLES TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE
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PICTURE:
Neelam Sharma 34 with Daughter Allena 4 and 2-month-old Vinesh Kumar at Narere home
Neelan Sharma is finding great difficulty stretching her carpenter husband’s $120 weekly income to feed the family and meet daily expenses.
Yesterday, she said her husband’s earnings usually fluctuated depending on the availability of jobs.
“At times, my husband can’t find work and this is a challenge the family continues to face,” she said, adding the real challenge for the majority of families who reside in her area was the high cost of basic food items.
Ms Sharma, who gave birth recently, said most of the time her husband shopped for the family and they had been forced to cut back on food because they could not afford it.
“Every time my husband comes back, he says the same thing, the price of food is expensive,” she said.
“At times, we can’t even afford to buy snacks for the children and this is sad because I am sure most families in Fiji face the same issue, and some are even worse off. We can afford to buy 5kg of flour a week, but there are other basic food items that we can’t afford because we also have water and electricity bills.”
Ms Sharma said there needed to be a review of the price of basic food items and this was an area that the Government must look into urgently.
Sources
