“There is no access to medical care for COVID-19 or for any other disease in this sector of Guasmo Sur” – Rebelion

We wanted to start by asking why
his name, his occupation and the neighborhood where he lives.

My name is Mónica Brito Mendoza, I am
Guayaquil, pedagogue and social and political activist. I live in the south of
Guayaquil, in the Guasmo Sur sector, in the Miami Beach Cooperative, next door
from the Playita.

What are the main
health problems during this pandemic, conditions
environment, food provision and other basic issues?

The cooperative where I live and all
the cooperatives of the Guasmo Sur sector, are constituted in a large percentage
by low-income families. A large sector of the population is dedicated to
the activities of commerce or self-employment. Many of the families are
extended families, which makes them live in overcrowding, in homes that do not
have adequate conditions for the coexistence of more than seven or eight
people, at best.

Regarding the conditions of
health, it is worrying that the population of the sector comprising seven cooperatives with approximately 3,000
families do not have access to free medical care for COVID-19 or
any other medical emergency, as the public health centers of
primary care of the Florida 2 Cooperative and Guayas and Quil closed the
attention to the public in full emergency. We have the hospital near the sector
Guasmo, but this hospital center has not managed to supply the demand for
the population, since it was destined to attend to the cases of COVID-19 of all
the city. Families have had to resort to private medical attention
(the few that have been available) or free online healthcare
that some foundations and social or political organizations have implemented
as an aid to the population, since most of the residents of the sector
state that the 171 service implemented by the government does not attend with
effectiveness.

Regarding quarantine, one of
the characteristics of the sector is the lack of public acceptance of the curfew
strictly, for various reasons, but not necessarily for the
indiscipline. This happens because of the concern of the heads of the household
to guarantee the resource to feed their families. It also responds to the characteristics of the houses
that being precarious and overcrowded, families live together
mostly in the shade of the trees under the portals and sidewalks of
their houses, until night falls and they must rest. If families in this sector have so far achieved
solve the food supply by reducing its consumption to one or two
daily meals, it was not precisely for the food rations
delivered by authorities of any level of government or foundations, here what
What has worked are the family and neighborhood solidarity networks. I have been
witness how the poorest families receive at least once a week the
visit of a family member, who traveling on bicycles, motorcycles, trikes or
any vehicle ends up leaving some type of provision to their relatives.
Here, neighborhood solidarity has not yet been lost, we are all awaiting the
who has less and contributes what they can, there is still a sense of humanity,
solidarity still exists, much more when in the midst of a crisis like this,
Every day you wake up thanking God for being alive, having to eat
It becomes a luxury that makes you want to share it.

What is your participation or work in the community?

As a social and political activist, with the support of the organization to which I belong, we have undertaken some initiatives that are applied in various sectors of southern Guayaquil, Ximena parish and Febres Cordero. Given the difficult access to health care, we managed to talk and bring together a group of medical professionals and respiratory therapists to provide free medical care online through direct phone calls or via WhatsApp from 08:00 to 22:00 Monday to Sunday. We started this program from March 26 to date, treating approximately 1600 patients in this period. This initiative has allowed my neighbors and citizens of various sectors not only in southern Guayaquil, but throughout the province to have the assessment and prescription of a health professional in any medical situation that arises.

I had the
I like that our neighborhood was the first neighborhood in Guayaquil that was organized
to do a day of cleaning and disinfection of the entire block, this
initiative under the security parameters, gives some peace of mind to
neighbors and above all reinforces community solidarity and is carried out
periodically a few times a week.

Too
We have made pressure on the municipal authority through social networks
and through coordination with the Guayaquil Councilor Lídice Aldás, it was possible to coordinate the fumigation to
several cooperatives in the sector and for other sectors of the parishes Ximena and
Febres Cordero. While it is true, these initiatives do not solve the main
problem that is the loss of human lives in Guayaquil households, not
we can stop highlighting that allow us to understand that we are social beings
and that we are destined for community life and that we must tend to
keep strong the spirit of seeking the common good.

It appears that community leaders – despite the
quarantine and the multiple difficulties imposed by isolation – have
more presence and activity than the State.

What the
community leaders, foundations, or any other social or political actor
can always be valuable, welcome and grateful, but it will never be
enough. This emergency in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled not only
to Ecuador, but to the entire world that a crisis of this magnitude can only be
face with a strengthened comprehensive public health system, we cannot
Talk about an obese state when it comes to public health. Unfortunately
Our country has suffered a severe blow in the last three years in terms of
budgetary matter in health. The mandate has not been fulfilled since 2018
constitutional progressive increase of 0.5% for the health budget, on the contrary they were cuts
millionaires who suffered the field of public health, as well as the dismissal of
operational health personnel. In coastal areas such as Guayaquil the
personnel in charge of vector spraying and we have had to face,
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, an impressive rebound in outbreaks of
dengue for having practically eliminated the heading for fumigations. This should lead to Guayaquil and
Ecuadorians to understand that free public health is not an expense, but
that it is a citizen right that the State must guarantee, that no hospital
can be considered a white elephant, and doctors cannot be beaten
with salary reductions. Without
Health there is no life, without health there is no economy.

How are you organizing now with
the “Stay Home” and the curfew?

The
families are living in uncertain times, and the situation is at the level
global, not only we live it, the world lives it. There is no certainty of how much
the longer the “Stay at home” and the curfew last, either by decree
of the Government or because families no longer resist the confinement for the
economic damage that this generates in an economy that lives mostly
of commerce, as is the case of Guayaquil. Currently in the neighborhoods, people are waiting to drink
precautionary measures with the use of the mask mainly, the
application of hygiene measures or habits, but you already feel an environment
of greater relaxation, which at the moment can be dangerous since not
We have reliable information on how the viral load evolves, for
as much as epidemiological fences were never applied in Guayaquil, less in the
popular sectors such as Guasmo.

What possibilities of changes
positive do you see for the future?

The
question becomes very complex when we do a panoramic reading of what
the country lives in managing the emergency and even more so when we want to think
future. In the political and economic sphere, changes are a concern when we know
that our rulers have unveiled their priorities emphasized only by
capital care. Ecuador is an example to the world in improper management
of the health crisis; was made visible as the government that preferred to pay
325 million to debt holders instead of allocating those resources to the
health emergency. Today I know
Two laws are debated in the Assembly to look to the future after the crisis. It should
ask ourselves what future those laws will guarantee: the future of
ordinary citizens or the owners of capital and the means of production.
That’s how uncertain I see the future, but that can also be changed decisively
citizen and with concern for the common good.

Have you been able to buy food and medicine in your neighborhood? There is
price premium on products?

The popular urban sectors have a
advantage unlike residential and middle class sectors, life
it has a different rhythm, people adapt, “they look for them”, we say
Guayaquil. We are fortunate that merchants in our neighborhoods
freelancers carry groceries to
the door of our houses. Throughout the morning the
sellers of the most varied that can be offered in the market ranging from
sale of fruits and vegetables, dairy products, grains, seafood, even medicines, all in
tricycles, cars and trucks accompanied by the respective loudspeaker. This has
made you have no greater need to go out. And yes there has been an increase in
prices especially for eggs, dairy and legumes.

Have you or someone close to you received medical attention in
Guayaquil during the pandemic? How was the experience?

I suffered a series of symptoms in my own flesh,
that the doctor who treated me by telemedicine did not rule out that it could be COVID-19,
I am already recovered, only the symptom of acute fatigue persists. I could not
go to the hospital center mainly for fear of contagion, but
also due to their saturation levels.

Do you have relatives or neighbors affected by the coronavirus? Is it so
out of danger? Are they in a hospital or at home? If you can add
any detail, I will appreciate it very much.

I have had several close neighbors (2) killed by COVID-19 and
unfortunately my father-in-law and two of his legal grandchildren who lived with him
two blocks from my house. The
my father-in-law’s grandchildren recovered, my father-in-law sadly passed away
exactly 7 days ago. They were unable to attend a hospital center, they received
home health care. My father-in-law required an oxygen supply and I don’t know
got for several hours until his transfer to the Hospital del
Guasmo where he was immediately treated with oxygen in the morning. Me
husband who was the relative in charge only received one call a day to indicate
the patient’s situation, on the second day his death was reported.

After this painful moment my husband is in isolation and
requires the COVID-19 test, there is no public health center that has
wanted to do the test, everyone answers that they will only do it when they present
symptoms. THEY HAVE NOT AND WILL NOT APPLY
THE CLOSE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL, that’s why contagions grow, that’s why there are so many deaths. In our
In this case we will test in particular.

In the
newspapers of the world have published photos of coffins in the streets of Guayaquil
– taken out of the homes by relatives of the deceased, desperate
given the long delay of the services in charge of removing them- or bodies of
people who died on the street. Have you seen any of these two cases in your
neighborhood?

Not in my neighborhood. As a social and political activist, I have contacts with neighborhood leaders of numerous cooperatives in the south of Guayaquil and have received numerous calls asking for support for the authorities to carry out the removal of bodies. In three nearby cooperatives yes. I give you the names of the cooperatives: Unión de Bananeros Bloque 2, in front of the San Gregorio market, where family members desperate to have their deceased relative at home for more than 4 days opted to make a block vault on the sidewalk of their house what caused the protest and burning of tires of the neighbors; The police had to arrive and the corresponding pressure had to be made on social networks to the authorities to carry out the removal of the body. Cooperativa Guayas y Quil in front of the Franchesca restaurant, diagonal to the Parada del Tigre, the residents of the sector burned tires and closed the streets demanding that two bodies be removed from the sector that had supposedly died from COVID-19 and that had been 4 days without legal medicine proceed to the uprising. In the Cooperativa los Últimos Seremos los Primeros del Guasmo Central, I was able to accompany the case of a young man who had the body of his mother at home, even in bed who had died, because he did not have a penny for the funeral, while he slept in the planter of the house; Legal medicine took 6 days to lift the body of the lady, her only son who lived with her also had symptoms and never had access to the evidence. I could tell you of at least 20 more cases from various sectors of the city of deceased whose bodies remained for 4 and 8 days without being lifted from their homes by the competent authority, but that is undoubtedly too painful to capture in this space. Today we no longer see that terrible scenario, we could say that there are no more deaths or that the competent authority is more organized, we will not know for sure.

Are you still receiving the same salary with quarantine?

The salary for the month of March I received 17 days late, I am
public servant. We are waiting for the reduction of wages in the sector
public that will surely be the contribution that we all have to make for the sake of
the Solidarity. It is important to mention that solidarity, although it is
important, it is not the solidarity of the popular or middle classes that
will allow to rebuild the economy of Ecuadorian families, solidarity
of the big capitals is the only thing that can partially solve the crisis
economic generated by the pandemic, added the labor force of the
Ecuadorian workers.

How much longer do you think they will be able to subsist (economically) in these
forty conditions and work suspension?

In relation to these two
last questions, although it is not my case, it is the case of most of my
neighbors of the sector, and it is evident that without the help of the state and organizations
international health, families will not be able to resist long
quarantine for more than a couple of weeks.
To this situation must be added the large number of layoffs already
report from the private sector due to the suspension of activities by the
health emergency. The central, provincial and cantonal government must add
efforts and establish an emerging plan for Guayaquil, which serves
mainly the requirement of families in food, attention in
health, massive tests to establish epidemiological fences and medicines.
Guayaquil has approximately 600 thousand homes, approximately 60% of families get their income
for autonomous activities, this would mean that the government must guarantee
minus 360,000 food rations per week for families to
resist more quarantine time. Only in this way can we continue to promote
“Stay at home” slogan, without starving.

I would like
add something else about your experience during the pandemic? Many thanks
for their valuable collaboration.