Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘child’

This post is a part of Blog Action Day 2008 on poverty.

The difference between roughly 17% and 30% is over 4.5 million people and it is the difference between what Argentina officially reports as the number of poor in the country and the general wisdom of the non-governmental economists. As often in this country, it depends on who you ask. INDEC, the governmental body on statistics is no longer reporting the percentage of poor as the inflation rate grows. The numbers INDEC puts out in regards to inflation are also highly suspect and since the two are intertwined it is impossible to have a true reflection of poverty in Argentina.

The optimistic numbers by the government body conflict with reality on the ground, according to an article in La Nación. The government assists with 1700 comedores, neighborhood locales where residents can go to eat and often get food to take home. La Nación also points out the infant fatality rate for causes related to malnutrition, in compared to the same period last year, rose by 117 children under the age of 5. That is 1734 children in total for the reported semester.

But what matters to most, who are living in poverty here, is not 17 or 30, but more importantly 150 and 4. $150 pesos (@$50USD) is what Gloria Rodriguez, 44, makes per month. She works at Comedor Los Pibes in La Boca and puts in four hours a day, five days a week sewing or other duties for the comedor. This is preferable to the 14 hour days, six days a week she worked cleaning to earn $220 pesos, but it certainly does not provide and she, with three of her younger children and her elderly mother live in Villa 31.

The comedor where Rodriguez goes assists around 130 families and upwards of 1,500 people. Los Pibes began 12 years ago as a regular comedor, providing lunches and extra food. It is now better described as a social organization, with multiple functions: to provide lunch for those that work there and food they can bring home to their families, to teach basic skills such as cooking, sewing, English and computers, to be politically active, and to build cooperative living apartments for 33 families.

Julian Gomez, 73, a resident in La Boca has been going to the comedor since it opened its doors. He migrated from Formosa, located in the north of Argentina and in the area known as the poverty belt, when he was 13 years old. Four children, nine grandchildren and forty-five years later when asked if poverty was worse now, all he answered was “cada vez más.”

What’s the difference between 17% and 30%? Depends on who you ask.

Read Full Post »

Tatiana Baez, 4

Tatiana Baez, 4

I find I am photographing children more and more. I am drawn to their faces and their surroundings. I look to show the connection between the two, between the expressions you see in my images and where they live. This is not so say the children I have photographed do not laugh and play. They do that also. But at the same time there is a reserved nature to what I witness. Tatiana, one of Cati’s granddaughters, was standing off on her own as a large crowed began to gather at the cooperative living site where she lives with her six siblings (7th on the way), mother and father, Cati and her husband (11 people in the house). The crowd was there to celebrate the construction, already underway, of what will eventually be 33 apartments for the poor. Currently however, only a handful of families share a cavernous, warehouse-style space – cold, damp, and poorly lit. When I first met Tati she and her siblings were somewhat shy, but warmed up to me quickly and I left with a pocketful of drawings to hang on my wall – hearts, houses, and a portrait of me with a camera and glasses on my head. Today, however, she was shy and not open to speaking much. I didn’t see the rest of the kids much either. The photo to the right is Tati half-hiding behind a piece of plywood, propped up to use as a wall around an outside patio. Her backyard is a construction site.

Read Full Post »

My experience with living conditions and lifestyles in La Boca and around Buenos Aires continues. After meeting up with Gloria, we went to her sister’s house in La Boca for a mate. The images below are of the inside of Silvia Rodriguez’s house.

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.