Volunteers distribute food aid to families in need in Cayennes, Guyana badly hit by the coronavirus and confined for months. - AFP

"Right now, I eat once a day. And my children, they eat, a little, "explains Rebecca, a resident of Guyana deprived of her" little jobs "since March because of the coronavirus and the confinement maintained more or less severely since mid-June.

In the Amazonian territory, where Prime Minister Jean Castex is expected on Sunday, the Covid-19 epidemic on the rise - a new death and +124 cases confirmed within 24 hours, in all 5,178 cases and 21 deaths - has generated growing social tension .

"The problem has become more medical than social"

Thus, Rebecca, thirty, mother of two young children, Haitian in an irregular situation, no longer has any income because she can "no longer work". The young woman, braided hair and light dress, shares with other families a concrete block house at the Source of Baduel, slum of Cayenne reconfigured for ten days.

Under the shade of large mango and banana trees, a team of volunteers linked to the regional food aid platform walks the concrete alleys on foot, between sheet metal or concrete blocks.

In this neighborhood built on the hillside, we distribute door-to-door garbage bags of a few kilos filled with cans, chocolate powder, soap etc. families identified by social services. “It's a neighborhood of 10,000 inhabitants, we came with 60 packages. It is insufficient. There are people who do not eat for 4-5 days, the problem has become more medical than social ”, worries François Lair, doctor, who evokes worrying situations concerning“ infants ”.

Six times as many food aid recipients

In this territory, which has 300,000 official inhabitants and many citizens in an irregular situation, since mid-March the state services have counted “30,000” “regular” recipients of food aid, ie six times more than usual.

The food need "is generalized all over the territory", explains the sub-prefect Claire Durrieu, who speaks of a growing attention to pay "in the informal districts of the coast".

“One in two social insured persons” is “very precarious”

“The tightening of confinement in several districts of the island of Cayenne as well as the cessation of the informal economy have catastrophic social consequences in particular on access to food, and therefore on the state of health or even the survival of part of the population, ”insists Médecins du Monde in an open letter to the government. One "insured person out of two" falls within the "great precariousness" (state medical aid, complementary health solidarity) in Guyana, according to the association for which "the survival of part of the population" is at stake.

In this French community in South America, food can be expensive, with food product prices 34% higher than in France, according to INSEE. The closing of the borders with Suriname and Brazil and the closing of small fish markets force some families to shop in supermarkets where prices are higher.

The situation is "very cruel," says Jeanmiché Bellevue, who identifies families in his neighborhood in need. "People are confined, they have no assistance," he says, referring to an increased "difficulty" of his compatriots, Haitian migrants, often victims of ostracism. “The state will further increase the effort. It is maintained until the end of the health crisis, in addition to the 3.2 million euros already made available, ”says the prefecture of Guyana.

The epidemic wave arrives and “one has the impression that all that has been done is not enough. When you have finished running the marathon, you have to do a 400 meters ”, breath, mine grave, Benoît Renollet, territorial director at the Red Cross. "The actors in the field are exhausted, institutions are closing due to the Covid-19 cases internally, and the holiday season has started," he said. Nine members of the Red Cross emergency unit are expected next week "to strengthen the teams, the communal social action centers and the town halls" but the general opinion is "we also lack arms" for food distributions.

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