Another face of COVID-19: hunger and unemployment among the most vulnerable

The pandemic in Barranquilla has not only caused death and disease, to this drama are added the needs derived from unemployment, which have the food well-being of families in suspense.

On 10AM Hoy por Hoy, from the southwest of the city, in the Las Malvinas neighborhood, Caracol Radio spoke with some of the most affected.

Cindy Guete is a mother who is the head of the household, living with five other people, including children and grandchildren, several of whom are babies, who sleep in two beds and rented in an improvised house made of boards, tiles, bags, and cloth.

She makes a living as a manicurist when the opportunity presents itself, because it's not every day that she gets clients.

"With what I can have saved, we buy bread, a pound of rice, coffee and that's how we've always been since the pandemic began. We eat both meals in a hurry, I manage to get enough for breakfast and lunch sometimes," explains the mother.

For Guete and his family there are no luxuries, there is no television, there is no sewage system and the fan they slept with was damaged in the most recent rain that occurred in the sector, causing it to get wet and damage some equipment.

"With the downpour that fell here in Las Malvinas last week, everything got wet, my fan and I was left without a fan. And I live rented, I pay 150 thousand and when I don't have them, the lady tells me to calm down, that I go giving it with the little that I have", explained.

A situation similar to that faced by Norelys Suárez, mother of six minors and who earns life selling garbage bags and lollipops on the outskirts of supermarkets.

"Right now the situation I have is that I pay rent, I pay $100 thousand pesos and to support my children I have to go out and sell on the street and I earn $10 or $15 thousand pesos and that is not enough for me. My daughter It also helps to support us with food" she assured moved, when she reported that her children had not had breakfast at the time of the interview, at mid-morning.

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Suárez, sleeps on mats on the floor with her children, after losing the bed in the middle of the removals, due to the deteriorated state it was in and it ended up being damaged.

An athlete who today lives in misery

In the midst of the precarious conditions in which several people from the Malvinas sector live, is the space built with only bricks, by former athlete Luis Carlos Santana, a swimmer who had the opportunity to represent the department in multiple national tournaments in the 80s and 90s; and who today sleeps on a sofa in a small space shared with his mother.

Santana calls on the authorities to help her mother, with mental problems that have considerably deteriorated her health.

"These are things that hurt me and more than anything I call the department because I was a great athlete between 1987 and 1992, I know I'm not the only one in this situation, but I ask the mayor and authorities players who really knew me, put their hands on their hearts in this situation", he says.

The athlete who represented the department for the last time in National Games, assured that at that time he was chosen as athlete of the year in the Atlantic, for which he was promised a home, which never happened.

Today she asks for help so that her mother can be cared for and treated, in order to prevent her mental situation from worsening.

Finally, she said that although her mother was already scheduled to receive the vaccine, it has not been possible to transfer her to receive the biological against COVID-19.