Family of five smoke to ease hunger pangs

FAMILY OF SMOKERS. There is an urban barangay here where all five members of a poor family — from the father and mother and the three siblings, smoke cigarettes. The father is 48 years old, the mother is 41 and the children are 12, 10 and 7. An Ear informer said the family members smoke to ease the pangs of hunger.

ADDICTED. Our informer said the family members have become so addicted to smoking that even if they are given food by do-gooders in the neighborhood, they still smoke. A member of a Protestant ministry is planning to bring the family to his farm in a nearby province to try to give this family a better life.