By Patricia Morales and Manja de Graaff | Project leaders
The effects of inequality in times of COVID-19
At the beginning of 2020, the entire world was shaken by the arrival of COVID-19. This new virus changed our way of work, our way of attending school, and even our contact with other people. As a result of the arrival of COVID-19 to Mexico, the country went in lockdown at the end of March 2020 to avoid the spread of this new and unknown virus.
For families trying to locate a missing relative, going in lockdown meant in many cases pausing their search which has had terrible effects on the lives of many people. Each day of compulsory isolation was a potential day wasted finding their loved one. Staying at home to stay healthy with the hope the pandemic would end soon kept many family members of the disappeared going.
On the other hand, relatives of the disappeared have also suffered from government institutions closing down temporarily what meant a compulsory pause in the search and investigation for their missing relative. Additionally, research has shown that the vast majority of family members of disappeared people work in the informal sector. They survive by selling food, clothes, or other goods. Some of the families we accompany work in the touristic sector. With the markets and streets closed, the absence of tourists, and the suspension of non-essential business, families many families lack the resources to pay the bills. To make the situation even worse, Mexico is the third country with the most COVID-19 deaths. Research conducted by the Instituto Mexicano de Derechos Humanos y Democracia A.C. (IMDHD) shows that many families of disappeared people got one or more positive cases of COVID-19. Getting the medical attention needed was difficult. At times, there were not enough hospital beds available in the public hospitals. In general, the right medical attention has its price; a price that many Mexicans cannot afford to pay.
Being aware of the difficult situation that families searching for their missing relative are going through, the IMDHD started providing humanitarian aid to members of the groups that due to the health emergency have lost their jobs or have seen their income reduced. With the support of different funders, we achieved to provide humanitarian aid to family members in the State of Mexico, Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Jalisco, and Nuevo León.
Considering that the beneficiaries had different needs, they spend the money either on medical supplies or on food or medicine. The money was directly given to the beneficiaries, but in some cases in which the families live in remote communities, the money was distributed with the support of the spokesperson of their search collective.
In these past months of quarantine, the IMDHD organized some self-care workshops for the women of the collectives of relatives of disappeared people to help them cope with the quarantine, as well as alleviate any emotional distress, share their concerns, and motivate one another to continue their search for their relative and justice. Another part of the workshops consisted out of yoga exercises to promote staying healthy during the quarantine.
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