{"id":58732,"date":"2020-04-11T17:10:39","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T20:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=58732"},"modified":"2021-02-05T16:34:35","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T19:34:35","slug":"amid-pandemic-rio-de-janeiro-residents-struggle-to-put-food-on-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=58732","title":{"rendered":"Amid Pandemic, Rio’s Favela Residents Struggle to Put Food on the Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

For the original article in Portuguese by Gustavo Goulart, Rafael Galdo, and Rafael Nascimento de Souza published in Extra click here<\/a>. This is our latest article on the\u00a0new coronavirus as it impacts Rio de Janeiro\u2019s favelas<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Life has always been a struggle for Victor Fernando, 32, a moto-taxi driver. But he never imagined that he would have to leave for work in the morning without eating breakfast and, sometimes, only have one meal a day in order to save food for his 60-year-old father. Victor lives in Vidigal<\/a>, in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s South Zone<\/a>, and is one of the millions of Brazilians who have seen their incomes reduced<\/a> or disappear completely due to the pandemic. Even though he hasn\u2019t stopped working, Victor\u2019s fridge is already lacking many essential foods; this is why he\u2019s anxiously waiting for food parcels to be delivered to the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had financial problems before, but we\u2019ve never lived with food shortages. We\u2019ve almost run out of rice and beans. And out of the little that we have left, I\u2019d rather my father eat it. He\u2019s a bricklayer, he\u2019s out of work and he depends on me. Given his age, he needs to eat more than I do, and also to strengthen his immune system,\u201d says Victor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Passenger numbers at the moto-taxi stop where he works have dropped by around 90%. Out of the 250 moto-taxi drivers who work in the favela, around 100 have already stopped working, either out of fear of Covid-19 or because the money they would earn wouldn\u2019t cover the cost of gas. If before he earned up to R$2,000 (US$375) per month, now he doesn\u2019t manage more than R$700 (US$130).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThen I pay R$600 (US$115) in rent and child support for three children. I\u2019m still working because otherwise, I\u2019ll go hungry. Even then I\u2019m getting tired of eating sausages and eggs. I\u2019m not ashamed to say that I\u2019m struggling to eat well,\u201d says another moto-taxi driver, Maur\u00edcio dos Santos Fernandes, 26.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Mois\u00e9s Alves, administrative director of the Vidigal Residents\u2019 Association, it\u2019s not just moto-taxi drivers that have been asking for help, but also Uber drivers, taxi drivers, street vendors who work on the beaches and lots of other workers, including those with higher incomes. On Sunday, the Association received 25 basic food parcels, which disappeared in minutes. <\/span><\/p>\n

Vidigal is one of the favelas on the waiting list to get support from A\u00e7\u00e3o da Cidadania<\/a>, a traditional and highly respected Brazilian NGO with the mission to end hunger. Kiko Afonso, executive director of A\u00e7\u00e3o da Cidadania, explains that during the pandemic, they\u2019ve created a campaign that has already delivered 40 tons of food each week to around 4,000 vulnerable families in the state of Rio de Janeiro. In the last few weeks, requests for help have massively increased.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim is to support 100,000 families, and this is why we\u2019re calling for donations from individuals and businesses,\u201d says Afonso.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Searching for leftover food at the Food Distribution Centers (CEASA<\/a>)\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Data Favela Institute<\/a> undertook a survey in favelas across Brazil<\/a>. 78% of those interviewed reported knowing someone who has already seen a drop in their income due to the pandemic. And almost 9 in 10 respondents said they would find it difficult to buy food if they were ordered to stay home without earning money.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The effects of the pandemic can be seen at the <\/span>Food Distribution Center <\/span>(CEASA) in Rio\u2019s North Zone<\/a>, which is surrounded by 18 favelas, among which are Pedreira<\/a> and Para Pedro. Every afternoon, a growing number of people come to collect leftover fruit and vegetables. This is food that is meant to be thrown away: items that couldn’t even be used at the center\u2019s food bank, which delivers food to neighboring communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a way of counting how many people are coming and we can\u2019t prevent them from coming. That would be inhumane. In order to minimize risks to their health, we\u2019re cleaning the area on a daily basis, in addition to our weekly clean of the whole center,\u201d says Bruno Klein, superintendent of Supply at the<\/span> Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat for Agriculture.<\/p>\n

A mother stops eating to make sure her children don\u2019t go hungry<\/b><\/h3>\n

Talita Silva Gomes, 25, lives in the Tr\u00eas Fazendas area in Rocinha<\/a>, in a house without doors or windows with her three children, aged 8, 7, and 6. Gomes is unemployed and her family is already going hungry. Due to coronavirus, she can no longer do any of the \u201codd jobs\u201d that used to supplement the R$200 (US$38) she received from the Bolsa Fam\u00edlia<\/a> cash transfer program. On Wednesday, in her modest home, she only had a pot of beans which she divided into three portions for her children. She went hungry that day. The lack of food and fear of the virus have terrified the young mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll my children have poor immune systems and they have [chronic] bronchitis. My biggest fear is that something even worse happens and I end up losing one of them,\u201d says Gomes, sitting on the single bed where the whole family sleeps together. <\/span><\/p>\n

She knows that malnutrition can endanger the children\u2019s lives if they get the virus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Data Favela, 47% of favela residents do self-employed work to survive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe only buy the essential food\u2013beans\u2013and that\u2019s already running out. What used to help were the bits of work I did. Now there\u2019s no more work,\u201d she says, disheartened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gomes’ lifeline was her sister, Marla Silva Gomes, 25, a cleaner. Marla also lives in Rocinha and did cleaning every day for households in Leblon, a rich neighborhood in Rio\u2019s South Zone. But she was laid off two weeks ago by her employers, who were afraid of infection. Now, Marla also needs help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re struggling. Last week we didn\u2019t have anything to eat,\u201d says Marla.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A growing waiting list for donations<\/b><\/h3>\n

The pandemic has increased waiting lists for getting donations. The S\u00e3o Martinho Foundation<\/a>, which has offices in Lapa<\/a> and Vicente de Carvalho<\/a>, normally runs activities for vulnerable children and adolescents. But recently they have started a campaign to collect food and personal hygiene items<\/a>. News of the campaign has been spreading by word of mouth in favelas and amongst the homeless o<\/span>ccupying<\/span> Rio\u2019s city center<\/a>. In the last few weeks, requests for donations have increased by 300%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heli Ferreira, 54, from Ilha de Paquet\u00e1, a small island an hour away from the city center, is a volunteer who distributes breakfasts to people living on the street. He\u2019s seen a 50% increase in the number of people asking for his food donations, in front of the Rio State Court Museum in the downtown Centro<\/a> area. A video shared on Facebook shows an enormous queue on the sidewalk, and the people queuing don\u2019t fit the usual profile.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not the usual profile<\/b><\/h3>\n

\u201cPeople who have never queued for food before are now in need. I noticed well-dressed<\/span> people, with diplomas, <\/span>in the queue. And many Nigerians and <\/span>Indians<\/span>. I used to hand out around 200 breakfasts. Now, it\u2019s around 400,\u201d says Ferreira, who collects money from shops, at parties, and from the salary that he earns as a cleaner and gardener for a house in Paquet\u00e1. \u201cI have met people who never saw themselves living on the streets, who have families and houses, but they live far away and they\u2019re staying on the streets so they don’t arrive late for work. It\u2019s heartbreaking”, he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even people who work with food are fearful of running out of food. Dona Maria Almeida, who lives in the Morro Azul<\/a> favela in Rio\u2019s Flamengo<\/a> neighborhood, delivers takeaway food around the Largo do Machado square. The menu varies, at R$10 (US$2) per meal. But her main customers are street vendors, who have now disappeared from the streets. Instead of 80 meals a day, she has been preparing 15 to 20.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe little I\u2019ve managed to earn in the last few weeks is only enough to buy materials for more deliveries and will go towards paying rent. But I have children to raise and I\u2019m scared that soon there\u2019ll be no food on the table,\u201d says Almeida.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Support our efforts to provide strategic assistance to Rio’s favelas during the Covid-19 pandemic, including <\/b>RioOnWatch<\/i><\/b>\u2019s tireless, critical and cutting-edge hyperlocal journalism, online community organizing meetings and direct support to favelas: <\/b>bit.ly\/HelpFavelasFightCoronavirus<\/a>.<\/b><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas For the original article in Portuguese by Gustavo Goulart, Rafael Galdo, and Rafael Nascimento de Souza published in Extra click here. This is our latest article on the\u00a0new coronavirus as it […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":58736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3071,1288,1330,336],"tags":[168,3068,428,1030,1090,291,107,516,1278,359,2345,502,1851,1517,37,876,12,2634,3069,156,1822,363],"writer":[1056,3084,3085],"translator":[1401],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-58732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-coronaviruswatch","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-translation","10":"category-violations","11":"tag-centro","12":"tag-coronavirus","13":"tag-employment","14":"tag-favela-data-institute","15":"tag-flamengo","16":"tag-food","17":"tag-health","18":"tag-homeless","19":"tag-income","20":"tag-informality","21":"tag-lapa","22":"tag-morro-azul","23":"tag-morro-da-pedreira","24":"tag-moto-taxi","25":"tag-north-zone","26":"tag-poverty","27":"tag-rocinha","28":"tag-series","29":"tag-series-coronavirus-in-the-favelas","30":"tag-south-zone","31":"tag-vicente-de-carvalho","32":"tag-vidigal","33":"writer-gustavo-goulart","34":"writer-rafael-galdo","35":"writer-rafael-nascimento-de-souza","36":"translator-sarah-jacobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58732"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=58732"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=58732"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=58732"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=58732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}