News from the Missions by Fr Ed O’Connell

News from the Missions

The Home News which we see rightly tells of many facing unemployment, poverty and homelessness, but we are still relatively protected. Those in other parts of the world are not so fortunate.

Fr Ed O’Connell

We are now in a situation where we have to ride out the storm. The medical facilities available are overrun and the medical staff are exhausted. The Covid-19 has increased to above 8,000 new cases daily. The number of deaths now average over 200 daily. Those under 14 can go out for half an hour a day accompanied by an adult but those over 65 continue in lockdown. The curfew in Peru is from 10pm to 4am. Sundays have again been declared lockdown days and six departments are in full-time lockdown along with 34 provinces in different parts of the country.

There is no down slope, the people are out and about infecting each other, even children when the adults come home from work. As a result, the Children's Hospital in Lima is inundated with cases. Many staff are off sick with Covid-19, those left are finding it difficult to cope and are exhausted covering so many shifts. July saw 2,900 children affected by Covid-19, an increase of 75% in the month of July. From March to July 50 children under 11 have died and up to June 7,622 adolescents infected with 22 having died. I think we are on a second plateau, higher than the first. The total number of cases of coronavirus on 12 August in Peru was 498,555 with 55% in Lima and Callao, and 21,713 deaths, with 52% in Lima and Callao. Cajamarca is being hard hit, with between 80 to 100,000 people having returned there from Lima and Chiclayo. In the last two weeks the number of cases have doubled. This is being repeated in many regions of the country, due to lack of social distancing and testing, the opening up of economic activities and internal migration.

I accompany Manuel Duato Special Needs School, a Columban project. The teachers are in virtual contact with the parents and through them with nearly 400 children. We have helped 44 families on two occasions, as they have little to no income and are desperate. The teachers are exhausted and worried. Last week two fathers, of our Manuel Duato's Friends Over-18 Club for the severely mentally challenged, died, leaving their adult children without the support and love they had grown accustomed to receiving. Five students have had Covid-19, with one still in danger. In Ayacucho, we are communicating virtually with the parents, teachers and municipal officials to remind them constantly of the steps needed to protect themselves and their children. We have given out all the books from the reading clubs, so that the children have something to read at home and spent the last two weeks with a training programme for all teachers of the Province on bio-security for themselves and for them to communicate the same

Fr Ed with parishioners - before the pandemic

message to all their students, mostly by WhatsApp. We also have radio contact with the children, telling stories and getting them to send in their own.

In San Benito, the mothers of the four homework clubs have started communal kitchens and a key local community leader started another communal kitchen. The number of families helped in the five communal kitchens has increased to 190, with an average of five per family, so you have 950 people receiving a meal each day. We are in the middle of winter and with the help of friends, we have managed to distribute second-hand clothes to families in need and a bed to one family who were sleeping on the floor. Often, I am told, that in San Benito the children are the ones reminding their mothers to put on their masks before going out, so our training through WhatsApp is working!

I am in touch with groups of Venezuelan families; one of these, a family of six, is in desperate straits. They lost their accommodation and have been sleeping on a thirdstorey flat roof, with just a plastic covering and some old blankets to keep them dry and warm. With friends, we are trying to find them somewhere to stay. I have been able to offer them three months rent, hopefully to tide them over this difficult moment.

The people try to be resilient, they keep going and many share what they have with others when the need arises. Many Peruvians started their lives in poverty and gradually improved their lot but now many, of the 70% who work in the informal sector, are destined to return to poverty. Fr Ed is a Columban missionary priest based in Peru.