Uganda is a green and fertile country, and few of its people starve. But there is still great poverty, and a frighteningly low life expectancy.
Just like the UK, Uganda is rainy and stuff grows all by itself. The staple diet of savoury bananas (matooke) grows everywhere. The majority of the population are subsistence farmers, and can pick food from their own land.
But their farms are small, and they rarely grow enough to sell as well. So cash is scarce.
Malaria prevention is cheap. A mosquito net costs £2, and drugs just 1.5p per day.
Yet few can afford such “luxuries”.
And they certainly can’t afford £40 for a course of treatment when they catch malaria.
So many die.
Not of malaria, but of poverty.
“Nobody dies of malaria here...they die of poverty”
Rural housing is basic, and rarely has sanitation of any kind
Cooking facilities are equally basic, usually in an outhouse
It only takes a £45 operation to save the life of a child like this but her family could not afford it.
Families have typically 4-8 children - often including orphans of relatives
