Without AFRIL'S help, I'd be on the streets begging

WHEN Ismail heard his baby cry in the night, he despaired. He knew there was no milk in the house, and that his one-year-old son would be given water in his bottle - yet again.

- Anna Davis

"He cried and cried because he was hungry and didn't want water," said the 29-year-old father of three. "It was heart-breaking, but we had run out of milk and didn't have money to buy more."

Ismail added: "It has happened twice in the last month. I don't care about myself eating and my wife doesn't care about herself, but we do about the babies." Ismail, an asylum seeker and human rights activist from Afghanistan, has been hit hard by the cost of living crisis.

He, his wife and three children survive on £225 per week, which they use to pay for food, living expenses and transport. "Prices are going up and things are getting harder," Ismail said.