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Argentina’s economic woes exacerbate the misery of slum life
BUENOS AIRES, Sept 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Drug gangs and addicts are a
common scourge in the Villa Zavaleta slum in Buenos Aires, where even before
the recent economic crisis brought them to their knees, the 1,200 families
faced a daily struggle just to eat.
Rubbish and excrement fill the streets where a dog chews on a cow’s jaw
bone and a drugged woman staggers about.
“Many people lost their work. Here, we live off not much: solidarity and
part-time jobs,” says Alejandra Diaz, who runs the slum’s La Poderosa
charity, an organization working throughout the city’s shantytowns.
Some 90 percent of Villa Zavaleta’s residents are struck by poverty while
only 10 percent have a fully declared job, often for a waste disposal
company.
At “Nelly’s Diner” on Iriarte Avenue, the 60-year-old owner, Nelly Vargas,
serves more than 300 free meals a day alongside 16 other charity workers.
“I’ve had more and more people over the last few months. Prices are
increasing so quickly that they’re struggling to buy basic foods such as
milk, pasta or sugar,” says Vargas, who, as well as food, offers her guests a
warm smile and a comforting word.
Inflation predicted to reach 40 percent this year is largely to blame for
that. The peso, which has lost around half its value against the dollar since
January, goes a lot less far than it did at the start of the year.
“Some days, I don’t have enough for everyone to eat,” adds Vargas,
sobbing.
“She does a lot for the neighborhood,” says Diaz. “She showers the kids
who’ve been a bit neglected by their drugged parents, gives them clothes —
she has a big heart.”
– ‘We keep fighting’ –
It’s not just the economy that makes life hard in the slums, where
rival drug gangs settling scores can make life dangerous for residents.
One day in 2013, a stray bullet killed nine-year-old Kevin Benega.
“We keep fighting for a dignified home, but we’re a long way away,” says
Roxana Benega, Kevin’s mother.
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“I don’t know if we can have a better future, but we hope so.”
Poverty acts as a magnet for crime and drugs.
And then there is the police. Last week, three officers were convicted of
torturing youngsters in Villa Zavaleta.
“Living in a slum is very hard, very violent. You have to endure economic
violence, police violence, political violence. We run the place ourselves
because there’s no state presence,” said Fidel Ruiz, 23, who finds it
increasingly difficult to find little part-time jobs.
Villa Zavaleta was created in 1968 as temporary accommodation, but 50
years later it’s still there.
And life is getting harder.
“In just a few months, the gas cylinder went from 95 to 270 pesos. How do
you want us to get by?” asks Benega.
“I hardly sell anything any more, only basic necessities,” says Amelia
Corbalan, who runs a two meter-squared micro-market in a corner of her home
on Ernesto Che Guevara Street in the heart of Villa Zavaleta.
“People don’t have a single peso. No-one buys my yoghurts anymore,” says
the 42-year-old, who has taken in a pair of 15-year-old neighbors to try to
prevent them from sinking into a life of crime and drug addiction.
– ‘Poorer than before’ –
Disease is another issue due to poor sanitation.
There’s no running water nor an effective sewage system. When it rains,
the winding streets of brick homes with precarious-looking roofs, quickly
flood.
Lola Carrera, 46, tries to get by selling homemade embroidery. She lives
in a ramshackle home with her brother and 23-year-old son. She makes around
4,000 pesos ($100) a month that goes into a common pot.
“We’re poorer than before. I can no longer buy yoghurts, which the doctor
advised me to eat, nor butter. Too expensive.”
She would like to repair her leaking roof as every time it rains more and
more droplets make their way inside.
Thanks to Poderosa, though, her son and other local youngsters turn
recycled palettes into furniture.
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