At a school in the centre of Colombo, Sri Lanka, it has become common for children to faint in the middle of class. Their parents can barely afford a meal a day and they have been arriving at school quietly starving.
“Parents can’t afford the meat, eggs and milk that children need,” says Sandarenu Amarasiri, a teacher, adding that many were also missing school because financial hardship meant they could not afford transport, uniforms and shoes.
With 90% of people relying on state handouts, child malnutrition has soared across Sri Lanka.
According to Save the Children, two-thirds of families are now struggling to feed themselves.
Unicef’s regional director for south Asia, George Laryea-Adjei, says that “children are going to bed hungry, unsure of where their next meal will come from”.
In Sri Lanka’s poverty-stricken regions in the north, parents have started leaving their children in care homes as they can no longer feed them.
Food inflation has continued to rise, hitting a record 94.9% in September according to the Colombo Consumer Price Index, meaning parents have been unable to afford even basics such as rice and dal, while vegetables and meat have become unaffordable luxuries for many households.
Despite a $2.9bn (£2.5bn) loan from the International Monetary Fund tentatively agreed last month, it has done little to ease Sri Lanka’s economic woes, with experts warning it could be years before the country is back on its feet.
Fish, milk and chicken have become distant memories, and now many families live off only rice, lentils and sambol, a simple dish made from grated coconut.
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