Making a living

Poverty can have widely varying effects on people. Some seem caught in its ever tightening grip, unable to break free from whatever the cause. Some people, however, fight and struggle with everything they have to get themselves (or at least their next generation) out of poverty.

This picture shows one of our patients who lives in a squatter area near the clinic. She is attempting to make a living and break out of poverty through a small bakery in her home. She buys bulk peanuts, sugar and syrup and cooks these into a candy similar to peanut brittle. The pieces are packaged individually to make them more affordable to the people around her. During a recent visit, she generously gave us samples to take home. The photographer of this picture was our visiting dentist, Jim. While he highly supported her hard work and industrious attitude, he wasn't too thrilled with the sticky, sugary product because he had spent the last week pulling rotten teeth from kid's mouths.