In the middle of scandal over the Government’s delay in distributing food to soup kitchens communities, the Church warned this Monday that 10% of the Argentine population “frequently suffers from hunger”, percentage that rises to almost 15% among those under 18 years of age. Besides, one in four inhabitants do not eat enough or good quality food, or must directly skip a meal because the income is not enough, but among minors the universe in that situation rises to more than 32%.
The data is part of the “X-ray of poverty in Argentina: social reality and solidarity that is hope”, prepared by the Social Debt Observatory (ODSA) of the Argentine Catholic University (UCA)and which was presented this Monday within the framework of the llaunch of the annual Cáritas collectionthe official institution of the Church for helping those most in need, which will take place next weekend throughout the country.
The data presentation – which included the ODSA calculation’s reminder that in the In the first quarter of the year, half of the population was below the poverty line and 18% were indigent.– are known after the president of the Episcopate, Bishop Oscar Ojea, asked last week for the rapid distribution of food and warned about the risk of fall into “a lack of sensitivity” to the need for food.
The report was presented by the Observatory’s Data Development coordinator, Eduardo Donza, during a press conference at the San Pedro Claver Community Center, of Cáritas Quilmes, located in the La Carolina neighborhood of Ingeniero Allan, in the Florencio Varela district. , in which the president of Cáritas Argentina and bishop of Quilmes, Carlos Tissera, and its executive director, Sofía Zadara, also participated.
“The data may seem cold, or that they are just a number, but behind them there is a deep feeling, there are faces, there are poor or indigent families who experience hunger or are poorly nourished for economic reasons, there are unemployed people who cannot access a job. quality or poor overemployed workers,” said Donza – an expert on work and inequality – when breaking down the x-ray.
In that sense, he pointed out that currently “32% of employed workers reside in households in povertythat is, they are not able to have a job to get out of poverty” and stressed that “this is greater in the unregistered or pressurized workers, where it is closer to 50% or 60%a product of a productive structure that does not generate the necessary and quality jobs.”
He added that “there are mothers who cannot satisfy the needs of raising their children given the scarcity of resources and time to live that poverty generates; There are young people who cannot find a job, or who cannot finish the studies they would like; There are children who find it difficult to integrate and babies who see their developmental needs curtailed, both psychological and physical.”
However, he acknowledged that in terms of food there are aid initiatives from both the State and civil society that “make it possible for 50% of children under 18 years of age to attend school or community canteens,” such as the Card in state matters. Feeding and the University Allowance per Child that reaches 42% of minors and food bags, 37%.
For her part, the executive director of Cáritas said that her institution, through “a huge network of volunteers, makes it possible to receive more than half a million people every day in search of specific food,” although she stressed that “it is not only the delivery of a plate of food; It is a community that embraces, it is a part of the comprehensive development we seek.”
However, Donza believes that food aid “must be expanded, both by the State and the private sector“, although he admitted that “the recent increases (in items) announced by the Government for this month help in that sense to alleviate the current crisis.”
