In mid-April we started a campaign to handle the threat to the Covid-19 pandemic in the neighbourhoods near El Paraiso, in Mexico City. The MCSPA has been working in these neighbourhoods for over 3 years. To control the spread of the virus, we intended to conduct talks on hygiene and to distribute food and basic hygiene products the people to stay in their homes. The aim was to give 80 basic packages consisting of food and toiletries.

Two months has passed and with the help of many people – friends, our families, organisations, foundations, businesses and schools, we have been able to distribute 1,168 care packages to six villages in Tlahuac and five in Xochimilco. We are now waiting for more donations for the next round of distribution.

The safety protocols have become stricter as the days go by. We have the responsibility of protecting ourselves and also others from being infected by the virus. The hygiene talks on preventing the spread are very important in the villages which are further away and more isolated. The information that they normally receive is very vague. They may receive messages that increase paranoia or those that claim that the virus is not real and only an invention of the government!

We are still receiving food and toiletries. We want to see if it is possible to reach out to four more villages in the mountains of Xochimilco where there is serious food crisis since many families have lost their jobs and have no means to feed themselves. These are families who do not receive support from the government as they are so remote. We would like to give care packages to 400 families in these villages and 200 more to other families in Apodaca Nueva Leon, where the parish priest, Fr. Alejandro, friend of my family, has offered to help deliver the packages.

We would like to thank all who have been helping out to make all this possible. We are counting on your support to help the families who are suffering from the economic consequences of the lockdown and thus give them a breath of hope in these times of the crisis.

Blanca Beltrán

MCSPA