A POVERTY study conducted last year found hunger to be almost non-existent in Brunei Darussalam.
The study was conducted by Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) and the team surveyed 100 houses of families identified to be living in poverty.
Student Mohd Anwar Hj Mohammad, who led the study, said in an interview with The Brunei Times that members of the study team did not come across any poor families living in hunger in the Sultanate.
Mohd Anwar and his team conducted their surveys among poor families mostly in Brunei-Muara and Tutong districts due to time constraints. In Temburong, they only managed to survey 10 houses.
Many of these families relied on welfare and most of the money was spent on food, he said.
"Ten dollars per day would be the average amount spent on food," Mohd Anwar said.
The children of these poor families also received welfare, provided they were under 18 years of age. They get $60 every month and used this to help their families to buy food.
If members of the poor families did not have money, they would do odd jobs such as selling scrap metals. The money would then be used to buy food, said Mohd Anwar.
Mohd Anwar explained that there were times these families had to ask neighbours or relatives for rice.
"This is what's good about Brunei, there is always someone helping (the poor)," Mohd Anwar said.
It appeared that getting food was not really the problem; knowing how to apportion the food was. Mohd Anwar said the poor had to know how to apportion their food to make it last until the next time they replenish their cupboards.
While it is known that there are families living in poverty in Brunei, more information about people living in hunger is needed.
The study's findings do not support discussions in social networking sites on the existence of families in Brunei who lived on water for a few days until they had enough money to buy instant noodles.
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