live from hand to mouth

"We live from hand to mouth, others will end up stealing or getting into drugs," said Mandizha, who ekes out a living selling his mother's homemade kitchenware.

“We hear other people use mosquito repellents or burn anti-mosquito incense coils, which we cannot afford as we are just peasant farmers that live from hand to mouth,” she said.

"Most of the people were laid off and, because they live from hand to mouth, they couldn't feed themselves, they couldn't pay rent and they couldn't send money to their families. So quite a number migrated from cities back to their rural areas."

“We live from hand to mouth, as you can see...there is no wealth here, such as your goods might have brought.”

"We have endemic poverty in Africa. Over 80% of our population live from hand to mouth. They go out, they die of Covid. They sit at home, they die of hunger. Then what is better for them to do? It is a bad situation but it gives us all the opportunity to re-set."