After Garangsuren, an eight-year-old girl in Mongolia, comes home and does her homework, she has supper - her only meal of the day.

Tonight she sits with her father, Tsedeng, mother, Dulamjav, and her two younger sisters, Bulganchimeg, 6, and Nyamsuren, 1, who also share their soup with a friend from the countryside who is staying with them to study in Ulaanbaatar.

Garangsuren's father brings home about US$85 per month for making cement blocks used in the building trade. This is only seasonal work for about six months of the year. The other six months they have no income. Dulamjav stays at home to look after the children.

In the last year the price of bread and of most meat has doubled, and potatoes have gone from 20 cents a kilo to 70. They rent the ger in which they live for US$4 per month and another US$4 for electricity.

Before food prices rose they could enjoy a scrumptious soup with flour and meat. Now they don't have enough food. They cannot afford meat anymore - even during good times they can only afford intestine and stomach. Now their staple food consists of soup with flour and potatoes or porridge.

As the food prices increase it gets very difficult for Garangsuren to stay in school. Education is free in Mongolia but payment is needed for the school books, textbooks, school stationery and uniforms.

They have lived in this ger for two years. Dulamjav wishes to have her own home and to be able to provide all the educational needs for her children as well as tertiary education for her daughters when they grow up. As the cost of living increases she becomes more and more concerned about the education of her children.

Living on credit

When Garangsuren gets sick, has a headache or flu her mother takes her to the hospital but they have to get a loan from friends or relatives to pay for the medicine which comes to about $US10. She also has to get a loan for firewood.

Now they are reduced to taking loans to buy food or buy groceries on credit.

A shop usually only allows one credit purchase. If Dulamjav would like to purchase more groceries but has not paid for the previous groceries then the shop will not allow her to buy again on credit.

On a good day Garangsuren only has one meal a day. Other days she can only drink tea or eat a fried piece of flour. She often goes hungry now.

Children who go hungry to school cannot concentrate for long and learn slower than other children.

No school at all

Many families are struggling to survive as the food costs rise.

Idermunkh, a nine year old boy, stays at home while his divorced mother, Otontuya, goes out to collect scrap metal. Idermunkh lives with his mother and older brother, Ariunbold (13). On a good day Idermunkh's mother gets 90 cents a day from collecting 20 kilograms of metal which is dug out of the ground.

Idermunkh's mother struggles to send them to school. Otontuya is concerned about the education of her two boys as the food prices have gone up. Now they spend all their money on food. From a hard day of work Idermunkh's mother comes home with only a loaf of bread or pieces of intestine.

They only eat one meal in the evening.  When their mother cannot find scrap metal, which happens on a  regular basis, they go hungry.

As food prices increases in Mongolia more families will become vulnerable to hunger. They will be unable to send their children to school nor will they be able to enjoy a balanced diet. The result will almost certainly be widespread malnutrition and large numbers of children involved in child labour or delinquent behaviour, just to survive.