Help prevent violence against kids in Montevideo

February marked the arrival of two new international volunteers who will be supporting the "Help prevent violence against kids in Montevideo" project during 2020. Rocío, a sociologist from Paraguay, and Cristián, a social worker from Chile, got to work getting to know the local context and forming the strategic plan for this coming year.

All of our best laid plans were flipped on their head, however, with the arrival of the first case of COVID-19 in Uruguay on March 13th. Since then, the country has taken swift actions to diminish the spread of the virus, closing schools and non-essential businesses. Face masks are now mandatory in supermarkets and buses. Testing and contact tracing have kept the number of cases relatively low, however the economic effects have already begun to hit the most vulnerable. Studies from the national university (UDELAR) estimate that in the month of April alone, over 100,000 people fell below the poverty line, an 11.6% increase.

In the face of these new circumstances, the organizations of the Camino Nordeste Network, along with Rocío and Cristián, have reoriented their efforts toward food aid, educational support and family accompaniment. The challenges faced by the families in Municipality F range from lack of diapers to a plate of food on the table.

Local organizations and informal neighborhood networks have stepped up with impromptu soup kitchens, long distance tutoring, psyscholocial support, diverse online workshops, as well as resources against evictions. The volunteers have centralized this information into a catalogue in order to connect resources with those most in need.

In the coming months, the network and the volunteers will continue to work to meet the needs of children and teens within Municipality F, adapting our strategies to the reality of the public health crisis.