From All Africa, comes this profile of one woman who has struggled with poverty all of her life.
In a tiny six-by-six feet single roomed house in Githurai, Nairobi lives 52-year-old divorcee Teresiah Wairimu, with her five children.
Food, shelter and clothing have become a luxury she can barely afford.
A few dirty dishes lie scattered around the poorly lit room that has been subdivided into a kitchen, a living room and a bedroom.
Wairimu, who has danced with poverty most of her life, knows too well what it means to live from hand to mouth.
"We only eat when there is money because I cannot afford the upkeep. Meals here are not a guarantee and we make do with what we have," she tells Capital FM News.
Her back has become accustomed to the rigid and torturous panels of wood that form the support base of her bed.
Even though she has tried to improvise a thicker mattress by sticking old rugs and sacks to the old one, back pains have become the order of the day.
"When people give you help they tell you not to go back to them; in fact they stop picking up my calls because they think that I am asking for money," she says with a tinge of sadness.
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