By Miguel Lo Bianco and Claudia Martini

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Eduardo David Rodriguez takes bags of fruit and vegetables to sell in a fresh produce market in Buenos Aires twice a week to make ends meet for his family. Their family barely makes ends meet.

Rodriguez is one of the nearly four million Argentines living below the poverty level. This rate has risen during three years economic decline in Argentina, which was once one of the most prosperous countries in the world.

Rodriguez (40) lives outside the capital with his wife and two children. It is without running water, electricity, and gas for cooking.

According to him, “Working here is hard,” but he said that he had no choice other than to return to his family and provide them with daily bread. He earns approximately 12,000 pesos per month which equals roughly $60.

His wife earns 14,000 pesos a month and the state provides a subsidy of 13,000, which is about $395 less than the 67,000 that Argentinian poverty means for a four-person family.

On Thursday the government will reveal the poverty rate in Argentina for the first six months of 2021. It is currently at 42%. This country, home to 45 million people, has a wealth of natural resources, including corn and cattle. However, it’s plagued with rampant inflation and economic mismanagement, as well as years of debt crises.

We sometimes can only eat so much. Although we do not indulge in luxury, it is true that sometimes, our bodies are limited by what we can eat. Maria Eugenia Gonzalez de Rodriguez’s 39-year-old wife Maria Eugenia Gonzalez de Rodriguez works as a volunteer in a municipality cooperative to clear storm drains.

There are times when we have more than others.

Rodriguez is a soccer teacher in his free time. He teaches children and young people from low-income families how to play the game. This will allow them to pursue a career as a coach, which was something Rodriguez had hoped to do to escape poverty.

Rodriguez said, “I enjoy being with the boys, and I come to it without any obligation or any salary. It’s what keeps me going everyday,” he added.