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Sunday April 19, 2020
São Paulo is the epicenter of the Corona outbreak in Brazil. Therefore, many families in poor districts lack the essentials. Social workers fight false information, such as water or brandy, that helps against the virus.
Adriana de Santa is walking door to door in her neighborhood these days. There are short distances that you have to cover. In the Favela Peinha, in the southwest of the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo, the narrow houses are close together. Many are two stories, others three stories. 4,000 people live here in an area as large as the Berlin Olympic Stadium. Alleys zigzag down the hillside where Peinha has stretched for forty years.
Postmen drop off mail to upstairs residents at a bar a few meters away in the slum. Otherwise, they would just wander through this maze to find the correct front doors. And it would also be dangerous. Anyone who appears here unaccompanied by a local is considered the target of minor criminals and gangs. Adriana de Santa grew up here. Those who accompany them should not be afraid as long as it is bright.
“Is everyone healthy? Please stay home, please,” Santa appeals to the residents. Since March 24, strict startup regulations have been in effect in the metropolis because the coronavirus is also rampant. All of Brazil had more than 30,000 infected and 2,000 deaths on Thursday. São Paulo is the epicenter of the outbreak in the country.
At least you can see roaches
During a joint visit to the favela in October 2019, Adriana de Santa spoke about the rats and cockroaches that are part of life here. “I always yell at my husband to kill the bugs when I see them.” Then she laughed. For a long time he had become accustomed to rats and vermin. But now the potential intruder is a small invisible virus, and the fear in the neighborhood is suddenly much greater than that of rodents and vermin. “People are very concerned that they cannot isolate themselves here. In some apartments, five or six people live together in two or three rooms,” he says. And children’s educational institutions are currently closed.
Tight, confusing, dangerous without accompaniment: the Monte Azul Favela.
(Photo: Marcel Grzanna)
Favelas are the slums of the main Brazilian cities, built illegally, but largely tolerated by the government because they do not know where to go with all the people who have moved from rural areas to cities due to the massive industrialization of Brazil in the last 40 years. Of Brazil’s 200 million people, about 13 million people live in such inferior housing, says the largest national favela NGO, Cufa. There are said to be at least two million people in São Paulo.
Peinha is one of the neighborhoods that have experienced significantly worse times. 40 years ago everything was made of wood and corrugated iron. The sewage flowed through streams in the alleys and down into the river. People had to cross it with their legs apart. In other places it is still a reality. The gradual supply of electricity and running water has reduced misery in many favelas, but far from all.
Educational opportunities remain equally bad everywhere. Many people work as assistants and laborers or go to clean, others do not work at all. “Many live only by the hand to the mouth. The closing now forces them to stay at home. They cannot earn anything to buy food,” says Martina Schmickl. The 35-year-old works for the Associação Comunitária Monte Azul, an NGO that was founded in 1979 by German development worker Ute Craemer and since then has been very active in helping to improve life in Peinha and neighboring Favela Monte Azul. Now the NGO is urgently asking for donations to provide the essentials to hundreds of families.
Drug trafficking gangs and social workers
Recently came reports from Rio de Janeiro that drug clans under threat of violence ensure that the curfew is enforced in the favelas. The drugs are also marketed in Peinha and Monte Azul, on the street, without anyone caring that foreigners are only five meters from the sale of small pills. But gangs are not in charge here; Also because the influence of social workers has been very great for many years. “There is a silent agreement that distributors will not stay near facilities like kindergartens or health centers,” says Schmickl. Also because the NGO raises the children of some traffickers.
Children’s facilities at Favela Peinha are closed – families need to get closer.
(Photo: Marcel Grzanna)
The suaba feels largely safe in the favelas cared for by her NGO. Most residents know Schmickl’s face, they know that she is here to help. She has been working for the Association since 2018. However, she also leaves the rooms before darkness falls. “So the public quickly exchanges here,” he says, which means that families with children and the elderly stay in their apartments. Wild youth take to the streets and start their “day”.
There are also calls for a full curfew. Anger towards President Jair Bolsonaro is growing in São Paulo because it minimizes the danger. When Bolsonaro launched his popular health minister, Luiz Mandetta, a few days ago, who had spent two months trying to persuade the stubborn boss to act consistently, millions of people in the country protested by hitting pots and pans on their open windows. Panelaço, say the Brazilians.
Education is urgently needed
The inadequate education of many favela residents represents an additional challenge in the fight against the epidemic: incorrect information on treatment or prevention spreads rapidly and can hardly be recovered. Bolsonaro’s “that’s just a flu” policy leaves the light to others.
However, some media claim that you can disinfect your hands with standard brandy, although it only has an alcohol content of 40 or 50 percent. Adriana de Santa says that word spread in Peinha that the virus had been in a person’s throat for four days. You just have to drink enough water to protect others.
Outpatient emergency services are also being depleted because many elderly doctors in the risk group have been released. Representatives of the second largest favela in São Paulo, Paraisópolis, complained in an interview with the national newspaper “O Globo” that there was no emergency plan for the favelas. The hospitals in the neighborhood, where some 60,000 people live, are already overwhelmed. According to the dubious attempt to solve the problem, residents should not go to the doctor for every runny nose.
