In the midst of the global pandemic, the Ecumenical Coordination of Service (Coordenadoria Ecumênica de Serviço: CESE) continues supporting initiatives from the grassroots movements that express the struggle for resistance and the guarantee of rights – although now it is prioritizing initiatives of an emergency and humanitarian nature to combat the advance of the coronavirus.
The Small-scale Farmers’ Movement (Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores: MPA) is one of the groups that has received support to improve access to healthy food for socially and economically vulnerable Bahian families impacted by the dissemination of COVID-19.
The initiative focuses on the deepening inequality that the proliferation of the virus has brought about. Although the pandemic threatens each and every life, it impacts with much greater force on groups and populations that already face social, economic and racial inequalities and who live in constant vulnerability: populations whose basic rights are denied, whose access to health and sanitation services, guarantee of the right to food and food security are all seriously compromised.
Brazil has recorded 4,543 deaths (official figures from 28/04/2020) as a result of COVID-19 and is close to equalling China’s mortality rate (4,643). In Brazil, the virus has rapidly descended through the social hierarchy, spreading to the most economically vulnerable classes.
In the city of São Paulo (São Paulo state) the neighbourhoods with the most victims include Brasilândia, Sapopemba, São Mateus and Cidade Tiradentes, all on the city periphery. In Fortaleza (Ceará) the most critical neighbourhoods are Barra do Ceará and José Walter, both on the periphery (information extracted from a report from the German channel “Deutsche Welle”). In Salvador (Bahia), according to data from the “Correio da Bahia” newspaper, the virus began in Pituba (middle and upper classes) but the number of cases in poorer neighbourhoods, such as Engelho Velho de Brotas and Liberdade, has now increased.
In order to combat these inequalities, CESE has supported a project proposed by the MPA: “Peasant food baskets based on agro-ecology for families experiencing food insecurity in low-income neighbourhoods in Salvador.”
Three vulnerable communities, in social and economic terms, have been supported with 180 staple food baskets full of family/peasant farming products: the neighbourhood of Cajazeiras; the informal settlement of Manoel Faustino (made up of communities from the Homeless Workers’ Movement of Bahia, located on the side of the highway that links the BR 324 highway to São Tomé de Paripe); and the Quingoma Quilombo (Lauro de Freitas).
The products were purchased from peasant families organized by the MPA, thus providing farmers with an opportunity to continue selling their products at a fair price as well as providing healthy food to the urban population affected by the impact of COVID-19.
Leomárcio Araújo da Silva, an MPA leader, describes the feeling of mission accomplished in the movement, in being able to continue providing healthy and agro-ecological food. “This enables us to feel that we have fulfilled our mission, the historic duty of farmers and people from the countryside, which is to provide poison-free food, clean food to the urban population. This time our mission has been redoubled and we have made a collective effort against hunger to guarantee that our products reach the most needy communities.”
“By supporting us, CESE has encouraged other organizations to support the MPA and other social movements from the countryside to make their products available, so that they reach the tables of those who most need them,” Leomárcio Araújo da Silva declared.