For a few days, Nuria has had to start taking medication for depression. This neighbor of the Añaza neighborhood, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, is on the edge. She and her 16-year-old daughter survive on 130 euros a month and thanks to the help her mother gives them, “who is on leave because she has cancer,” explains Nuria. She was unemployed just before the state of alarm was declared and she didn’t even have time to apply for unemployment benefit. “I still get receipts for water, electricity and the 300 euros of Visocan’s rent, which they have not stopped charging us. My account has gone from red numbers, to violets and now to blacks. I don’t know how they want me to pay everything that when we do not have money nor to eat “, regrets Nuria.
Pino is in a similar situation. A neighbor of Jinámar, a neighborhood shared by the municipalities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Telde. She is 58 years old and lives with her 24-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter, the latter with Down syndrome and a disability of 79%. After paying the water, electricity and rent; the three must survive on 50 euros a month. “Several times I have run out of food, what little we have I prefer to give it to my children. Also my girl she cannot eat anything because she has thyroid glands, various stomach problems and a crooked jaw, “says Pino. When she has run out of money she has asked her neighbors for help” because since we have been in quarantine, no public administration has helped me. Just today, the Red Cross brought me a card with money to spend in a supermarket. “
Nuria and Pino face the poverty of the Canary Islands. They do not know each other but they share several things: they are single-parent families, with minors in their care, without work and live in the two poorest neighborhoods of the Archipelago. According to the latest INE data, Añaza, with some 9,000 residents, has the lowest average income per person and household in the Islands at 4,751 euros. It is closely followed by the more than 17,000 residents of Jinámar, with an income of 4,756 euros on average. For most of its residents, poverty is not something new, but it does succeed in the economic crisis that has arisen with the COVID pandemic.-19 lit affects faster and harder.
Social Services overwhelmed
According to Nuria, “the Social Services of the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife have only given me a card with 110 euros to spend in Hiperdino. It activates one month yes and another no, what do I do in the month that it is not activated?” This week she was able to make a purchase “but I already have an empty fridge”, regrets Nuria. Pino has called the city council of Telde several times asking for help, “I had an appointment on March 18 but they canceled it due to the state of alarm, since then they have not called me.”
The Social Services of the most populated municipalities of the Canary Islands are saturated. This is why many neighbors have to go to non-governmental organizations for help. As, for example, the Jinámar Popular Solidarity Network. According to his spokesman, Lolo Rodríguez, “before quarantine we gave help to 160 families, now we have received many calls from people who have become unemployed and have no income.” Lolo wonders why the municipalities do not reinforce social care with more personnel and resources, “they must give an emergency response because aid is urgent, people are on the edge,” Lolo warns, adding that “last week I received the call from a father who wanted to kill himself because he had no food at home and no money to buy it. “
For several years, Pepe has also been helping from the Añaza parish. This priest and his collaborators attended 160 families before COVID-19 “and during the quarantine we have received twice as many requests, a situation that will last a while, will not change in the short term,” says the pastor. For this reason, he believes that it is “very important to create networks with public administrations and private entities to respond to this social crisis”
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