Altogether an unhealthy habitat. Often these families depend on others for food e.g. relative or the Church. Many families are totally impoverished. The cost of food and other items such as medication has trebled or by this time probably quadrupled. Medication has always been out of reach of the poor but now it is almost totally unattainable.
Food is also now in that category.
The destitute have no chance at all. There are areas in East Timor, as we saw , where the people are suffering extreme shortages of food bordering on famine. They need assistance now and until such time as there are new crops of corn, rice and other vegetables. Hunger and related diseases are widespread both through country and city areas and should not be overlooked. The Timorese have suffered so extensively from food shortages and malnutrition over the past 23 years, including the famine of the '80's when so many died of starvation, that maybe they regard this present situation, which is so badly affected by drought, as just another episode which they have to battle out alone.