How are you for food?

This is, as you can imagine, a leading question in a country where maybe 80% of the population live in a state of food insecurity, eating what they have available day by day but unable to plan far ahead because of lack of money and resources.
So, when we go out on 'Home Visitations' to visit the hospice ART (Anti Retro-viral Therapy) patients (those with HIV+ status, infected and on medication to keep them healthy enough to avoid the symptoms of AIDS as long as possible) at this time of food shortages, we have difficulty in discerning which patients would like some extra food and which are in dire need of help, especially the households with older people, babies, nursing mothers or small children.
We, the counsellor and nurse from the hospice team, rely greatly on the Zone Leader of the compound being visited.  This person leads the team of Adherence Supporters who watch over and visit 'their' ART patients, checking on their adherence to the prescribed drug regime and  their general health and welfare.  
These, including the Zone Leader, are unpaid volunteers who take seriously Jesus' words "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do unto me" and act as true neighbours to those who really need a friend.
So, we take advice from these local experts, giving food supplements where needed and if available from our kind donors, checking clinic attendance, monitoring vital signs: blood pressure, pulse and temperature, giving these people some attention and care.
All the time, I am very aware that we are trying to fix a leaky ship with sticking plasters, that this level of poverty and food insecurity is not OK in a country of increasing wealth.  I hear on the BBC World service that real poverty is a problem in several European countries also, now that financial austerity is affecting many.
It's those at the bottom of the heap, the voiceless and disempowered ones, who bear the brunt of decisions made far away from the compounds and favelas, in the select suburbs of capital cities and the corridors of power.