- Title: No end in sight as 'structural poverty' tightens its grip on Argentina's poorest
- Date: 31st July 2019
- Summary: CONCORDIA, ENTRE RIOS, ARGENTINA (RECENT - JULY 15, 2019) (REUTERS) GIRL LOOKING AT CAMERA VARIOUS OF MAN ON HORSE-PULLED CART GENERAL OF POOR NEIGHBOURHOOD GIRL HOLDING A BOTTLE, LOOKING INTO CAMERA VARIOUS OF WOMAN LOOKING THROUGH RUBBISH NEXT TO CART WOMEN'S FEET VARIOUS OF WOMAN LOOKING THROUGH RUBBISH, PLACING FOOD IN CONTAINER CONTAINER WITH FOOD BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (JULY 29, 2019) (REUTERS) A RESEARCHER FROM THE ARGENTINE OBSERVATORY OF SOCIAL DEBT, A THINK TANK AFFILIATED WITH ARGENTINA'S CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, EDUARDO DONZA, DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RESEARCHER FROM THE ARGENTINE OBSERVATORY OF SOCIAL DEBT, A THINK TANK AFFILIATED WITH ARGENTINA'S CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, EDUARDO DONZA, SAYING: "In Argentina, there is a problem of structural poverty. What does this mean? That it's not just a circumstance of poverty, of non-income or low income that families go through. But we can already see there is a third generation in the same family, who are excluded. In other words, they are not only excluded from a consumer market, but excluded from a labour market, and in some cases, also excluded from a good education and often of social patterns of coexistence." DONZA DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RESEARCHER FROM THE ARGENTINE OBSERVATORY OF SOCIAL DEBT, A THINK TANK AFFILIATED WITH ARGENTINA'S CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, EDUARDO DONZA, SAYING: "According to our calculations, poverty has reached a level close to 35% of the population, taking into account the official survey, the permanent household survey of the first quarter of the year 2019." CONCORDIA, ENTRE RIOS, ARGENTINA (RECENT - JULY 15, 2019) (REUTERS) DAWN AT RUBBISH DUMP GIRL WALKING AROUND RUBBISH DUMP VARIOUS OF TODDLERS NEXT TO ADULTS SEARCHING THROUGH RUBBISH GENERAL OF RUBBISH DUMP VARIOUS OF WOMAN LOOKING THROUGH RUBBISH (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) 47-YEAR-OLD, MABEL ASSEBOR, WHO IS UNEMPLOYED WITH TWO OLDER CHILDREN WHOM SHE DOES NOT SUPPORT BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIVE WITH HER ANYMORE, SAYING: "And I like to work with families, cleaning homes because that is a job for me, but since I can't get that type of work, I have to come here (to the rubbish dump) and be in this situation that I don't like, but nobody helps me." PEOPLE QUEUING OUTSIDE SOUP KITCHEN MAN CARRYING BAGS WITH FOOD PEOPLE QUEUING TO ACCESS SOUP KITCHEN VARIOUS OF VOLUNTEER HEATING UP FOOD VARIOUS OF MONICA CARRASCO, WHO HAS RUN THE SOUP KITCHEN FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, GIVING ORDERS IN KITCHEN (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) 53-YEAR-OLD MONICA CARRASCO, WHO HAS RUN THE SOUP KITCHEN FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, SAYING: "In the last three years, we have received another 300 people and there is a waiting list, but we can't help them because we don't have enough food. They keep on coming until two or three in the afternoon to see if there is bread or anything left and that's the way it is every day. They don't care if it's Saturday or Sunday because they know that, if I can, I'll give them anything, but sometimes we have no leftovers." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE QUEUING WITH CONTAINERS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) 40 YEAR-OLD, MARIO FRANCO, WHO IS UNEMPLOYED AND MARRIED WITH ONE CHILD, SAYING: "I'm grateful to the people here, the people in the soup kitchen, and it's not as though I'm taking advantage (of the soup kitchen) by coming to get food here. I am not a bad person and I look for work. For example, I studied but I was raised in a different way and in a different economic condition. I think people should be given more opportunities and above all people should be listened to more." GENERAL VIEW OF TOWN WOMAN TAKING RUBBISH OUT GENERAL OF HUMBLE HOME VARIOUS, CHILDREN / RESIDENTS OUTSIDE HOME VARIOUS, TRAINERS HANGING FROM POWER CABLES
- Embargoed: 14th August 2019 16:07
- Keywords: Poverty rates Argentina Macri Concordia Entre Rios
- Location: CONCORDIA, ENTRE RIOS / BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
- City: CONCORDIA, ENTRE RIOS / BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
- Country: Argentina
- Topics: Government/Politics,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001AQ3ZSXZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Resigned and defeated, Argentina's poverty-stricken do not expect their living conditions to change radically with the upcoming October presidential race, with polls showing incumbent Mauricio Macri and center-left challenger Alberto Fernandez going neck-and-neck.
In Concordia, the second poorest city in Argentina, a girl looks on from her humble home in a nation where poverty has become structural according to a local researcher, meaning that three family generations have not been able to emerge from destitution. In recent years, poverty here has not grown or increased too much but has become stagnant.
People in this city are forced to look through rubbish dumps for food.
"In Argentina, there is a problem of structural poverty. What does this mean? That it's not just a circumstance of poverty, of non-income or low income that families go through. But we can already see there is a third generation in the same family, who are excluded. In other words, they are not only excluded from a consumer market but excluded from a labour market and in some cases, also excluded from (receiving) a good education and often of social patterns of coexistence," said a researcher from the Argentine Observatory of Social Debt, a think tank affiliated with Argentina's Catholic University, Eduardo Donza, adding that close to 35 percent of the population was living in poverty.
Families here have faced hardship amid promises by former president and current vice presidential candidate Cristina Fernandez to, "restore dignity to millions of Argentines that this government has plunged into marginality and poverty," and Macri's 'zero poverty' promises.
Hobbled by recession and one of the world's highest inflation rates, Argentina has faced a series of economic crises over the last 70 years. The current situation is threatening Macri's chances of being re-elected in October.
Fifty-three-year-old Monica Carrasco has run a soup kitchen in Corcordia for the past 15 years. She receives little funding from the national government and survives thanks to various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and good will from area residents.
Carrasco said that in the last three years, the number of attendees to the soup kitchen has grown by 300 people, with many others on a waiting list.
The country's statistics agency, INDEC, said at the beginning of the year 32 percent of the population - some 14.3 million people - was living in poverty, up from 27.3 percent in the first half of 2018. The proportion living in extreme poverty also rose to 6.7 percent from 4.9 percent.
Reports from several institutions in the country show that nearly half of the population living in poverty are under 15-years-old with 70% having very little or no education who will face precarious job conditions and no social security.
(Production: Claudia Martini, Miguel Lo Bianco) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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