BETWEEN THE PANDEMIC AND I
You must wake up from false reality. Teidy Cano, Cartagena Development Management Program for Afro-Colombian Women, master’s degree in Cultural Management Pacific Power Unbelievably, my daily life became everyone’s daily bread. They all lived the days of confinement that I knew from a very young age due to the lack of money in my house. My parents had to go out — both — all day to get something to eat. They are certainly a reflection of the norm for many families; for others, the situation is even worse. As a child I understood that for reasons I did not understand, life was more difficult for me, just as it was for many of my schoolmates. To think if we were going to have a place to live or what to eat, if I was going to be able to study, if my mother couldn’t go to work anymore; She felt helpless not to be able to produce to help her. I experienced premature stress, instability, and uncertainty. Between the pandemic and I, it is again no surprise that the racial gaps in which we live have widened. The rest is part of our history, of that inequality that is unequivocally crossed by ethnicity. I heard very discouraging phrases: that this virus is “a matter of hunger,” that this has affected the mental health of more than one person; I learned of a family of ten who have always lived in a house with only one room and have no way of isolating those who have been infected. But, after all, who am I? It’s simple: I am human, and the human runs through me. Between my body and the world, I am a woman, Afro-descendant, citizen, with a cultural identity and integral freedom. I was born in a context and with a social contract assigned to me by these labels. And, beyond the conjuncture and the historical pressure - not only my life experiences and those of my community, but also those of my ancestors, of the social fractures that the pandemic perpetuates -, beyond all that, our spirit is supportive; our culture and our knowledge help us to survive. We have and collaborate with each other to take care of ourselves and others. I keep thinking about what I can do to make a permanent life in pandemic conditions stop being normal life for my people.
Poverty has the face of a woman Milady Garcés, Buenaventura DALE, MingaLab, MIT CoLAb Community Innovation School and Master’s Fellow, Gobierno Pacífico U. Icesi We are facing a feminization of poverty. From there we understand the preponderance of women among the impoverished population. Poverty is a differentiated phenomenon, which specifically affects women. This, added to the aftershock of the coronavirus, presents a very complex panorama. The coronavirus exacerbated the crisis we are experiencing in the Pacific and revealed the overload it exerts on our bodies as women. We are mothers, wives, daughters and leaders, who take on the never-ending task of balancing and sustaining the social, community, political, and livelihood processes of our homes and communities. Despite our motivation, leadership, and drive, we face the health, economic, social, and psycho-emotional difficulties generated by the spread of the virus in precarious territories. The inequalities suffered by women in these lands are now more noticeable due to the following conditions: • The shortage of households • The increase in domestic and gender-based violence • The imminent risk of death, given by the lack of hospital infrastructure • Difficulty of access to connectivity for education • The psycho-emotional and mental health consequences Reducing poverty in the framework of this pandemic implies increasing awareness about gender inequalities and the impact of the precariousness of territorial infrastructure on their lives and communities; a social conscience and a state co-responsibility. The LGBTIA Population Resists Salvatore Laudicina, Buenaventura African Literature Laboratory and DALE Being an Afro-descendant and a member of the LGBTIA community in the Colombian Pacific implies a struggle on two fronts. As Newball Segura, a youth leader and member of the collective, Corporación Social Pacífico Diverso, says: “it means raising a single flag to fight discrimination.” The
LGBTIA population actively seeks to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus among the populations most in need. “We are aware of our social responsibility with our people. It is not only about demanding, but also about giving. That is the backbone of our leadership: contributing actions to change. There is so much to do. If we can contribute with one or more humanitarian aid, we will. We belong to Buenaventura.” adds Newball Segura. Although the situation demands priority actions, the present must also run its course. The pandemic cannot be an excuse to stop addressing other fronts; On the contrary, it must be an impetus for individual and collective vindication actions that contribute to this long-awaited socio-cultural change in the territory. Buenaventura is experiencing a historical moment, and not properly because of the virus. The union on these two fronts, of the LGBTIA and Afro-Colombian population amid the pandemic, makes it clear that new leaderships have been born in the Colombian Pacific. These leaderships have understood the power of their actions: what they do today must transcend time and create new processes that affect the social future of their communities. The crisis of the ecosystem and organizations in COVID-19. Non-profit organizations during the Crisis Ana Isabel Vargas Tutor, advisor and manager of Visible Hands Programs since 2013 COVID-19 has many faces: it started as a health crisis, consolidated as an economic crisis, and is becoming a humanitarian crisis. Many experts project the falls in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the countries and the losses of the companies, but very few have wondered about the situation of non-profit entities or philanthropic entities dedicated to the service of the community. What is happening to the sector that does not seek to enrich itself, but cannot survive if it does not receive income? Non-profit entities (ESALES) are losing a lot from the pandemic. A survey conducted at the end of March by the 57
