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Luis Rivas and his family have lived in solidarity for the last two months. Although he already owes close to a million pesos for the rent of his home and the hairdressing salon that he has in the Aguablanca district, one of the areas with the most needs and most afflicted by the covid-19 in Cali, the aid that He has received from his friends to be able to eat they keep him smiling.
This Chocoano’s smile was bigger when there was a knock on the door of his house last Thursday. When he opened his eyes widened when he received three plastic bags with humanitarian food aid, the same that were already in short supply at his home, to keep his wife and 8-year-old twin children safe.
And this barber has not been able to return to work to earn the 60,000 pesos a day that allowed him to buy grains and rice for his family. He has almost always lived from day to day by that trade between scissors and brushes that he learned and which has given him his livelihood. After wandering through his native land, he arrived at the humble Alfonso Bonilla Aragón neighborhood, in the east of Cali.
There he lives for rent in a house with no tarnished walls, where he pays about 500,000 pesos a month. Also, he pays this amount of money for the rent of the small place where he received his clients.
Rivas could not believe what he was going to receive when the priest Dagoberto Cárdenas spoke his name. He was one of the beneficiaries among 379 families who received these three packages in the Aguablanca district, one with solid food, the second with oils and other liquids for consumption, and the third with implements for personal hygiene and for the home.
“God bless you,” the barber said endlessly to Father Dagoberto, who gave his family food.
Five blocks before, the family of another barber, Gabriel Briceño, was the first in this great house-to-house tour that made a whole platoon of more than 40 people, among leaders of the 14 commune of the capital of the Valley, with the priest and guarded by patrols of the Metropolitan Police and lance soldiers of the Military Police, in one of the days whose mission is to deliver about 10,000 markets to the same number of vulnerable families in Cali.
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The delivery of markets is part of the strategy of the National Government ‘Helping does us good’, which is carrying non-perishable food, acquired through voluntary contributionsYes, to Colombians most in need due to the crisis that unleashed the coronavirus. The donation that came to this area comes from a businessman Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo, who gave 400,000 markets to the program to distribute throughout the country.
In this installment in Cali, coordinated by Father Dagoberto and ProPacífico, Estéfany Torres, Briceño’s wife, said that the situation has been difficult and has forced them to seek economic income to survive, so this aid is a balm.
The tour continued until we reached another brick house without tarnish and whose plaque, on the wooden door, consisted of numbers written in black marker.
It was the home of Diana Yepes, where a total of 14 people live. “This has been very hard. The services and the rent have not been paid. We greatly appreciate these markets. They come as a relief from the sky, “added Yepes.
For the leader Hélmer Mina, president of the community action board of the Las Orquídeas neighborhood, these aids are satisfactory, since in the community “many are hungry and would like to receive them.”
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For this reason, Mina said, all the families who received the 379 markets that day are still grateful for the donation. They hope that the solidarity of the Colombians will continue to raise afloat some families in the country in distress, while they seek to get some pesos to see how the lease debts are settled.
CAROLINA BOHÓRQUEZ
EL TIEMPO correspondent in Cali
Aid in all regions
The National Government, with its program “Helping does us good,” has already distributed 40,000 markets to the neediest families in various areas of the country due to the coronavirus crisis. The entrepreneur Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo, who donated 400 thousand markets, of which more than 36 thousand have already been distributed throughout the country, joined this governmental initiative. Among the departments that have received aid is Atlántico, Boyacá, Córdoba, Caldas, Sucre and Quindío. In the next few days, donations will reach Nariño, Cauca, Antioquia, Meta and La Guajira. In Bogotá, the program plans to deliver some 12,000 markets in different neighborhoods.
