No matter how poor or economically troubled an American may be, statistically, making more than 30,000 dollars per year in America easily puts one within the top 1 percent of earners when accounting for all other countries and people in the world. This may not surprise most people, as America is well known for being an economically prosperous country, but many Americans may not know just how badly people living in other countries have it. In the many impoverished regions of Africa, a mere 1 dollar per day can be worth the work it takes to earn it. As you can imagine, when people in Africa do have access to a bank, they do not always choose to keep their hard-earned money in one, as many of the banks in impoverished countries are corrupt and cannot be trusted. This is precisely why one elderly and retired woman from Ghana, Fatima Nyande, chose to keep her life savings in a safe hiding spot within her house. Unfortunately, Fatima would probably have been better off keeping her money in the bank, as her entire life saving were consumed by termite pests that had been infesting her home.

Fatima lives in Kpasa in the Nkwanta North district of the Volta Region of Ghana where workers have to struggle to make ends meet with extraordinarily low pay. Fatima is a 65 year old woman and widowed, so she depends on her life savings to maintain her economic safety. This is why Fatima chose to stash 2,000 in Ghana currency within a hole beneath some firewood in her home. This money, which only equals $400, is Fatima’s life savings, and since she had already been ripped off for Gh4,000 by a bank in the past, she was intent on stashing her money. You can imagine Fatima’s disappointment upon finding that termites had literally eaten every last bit of her money after they gained access to her hiding spot. In response to the situation, Fatima has decided to give a bank another shot.

Have you ever found termite-damaged paper?