They lost their jobs and struggle to keep children from sleeping hungry

Colombia: Women Unemployed Due to 'Pandemic'

Jacqueline Ardvey is a freelance fashion designer who has lost her only source of income due to the pandemic.

A.F.B.

In Colombia, women are paying a heavy price for the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the long lockdown and the economic consequences, they face a double risk today than men have by losing their jobs, and many of them are staying at home after becoming unemployed.

The new Corona virus has deprived 2.5 million women of their official jobs.

The Administrative Department for National Statistics states that “the number of working women decreased from 9.2 million in the second quarter of 2019 to 6.7 million during the same period in 2020.”

Elizabeth, Maria Edelma and Jacqueline embody the tragedy of women who have been excluded from the labor market, so they are free to care for their homes and children.

sacrifice

Twenty years ago, violence led to the displacement of Elizabeth Mosquera from the Choco region on the border with Panama, in northwest Colombia, and is considered the poorest province in the country.

In Medellin, its second largest city, Elizabeth became a domestic worker.

When the "Covid-19" epidemic broke out, her employers gave her the choice, fearing that she would become infected, between living with them constantly, or losing her job.

Keen to continue securing support for her six children, between the ages of 12 and 21, she left them alone and stayed at her workplace.

But she soon submitted her resignation, and this 40-year-old woman explains: "I knew that we would starve if I stopped working, but I found that the priority was for my children."

Today, Elizabeth hopes that her home will not be without water or electricity due to her inability to pay her dues.

Elizabeth, who survives from some sporadic cleaning, complains that "it is difficult," and adds: "Sometimes we go to bed without eating."

deprivation

When the beauty salon in which Maria Edelma Aguilar worked as a manicurist closed, she was forced to leave the apartment she had rented in southern Bogota, where she lived with her children, ages 17 to 20.

Maria Edelma was studying to become a beautician and self-employed.

Today, however, she lives with her children and two cats in one room in a shared house with 17 other people.

This 35-year-old single mother is struggling to provide for her family.

After taking care of the housework and the children in the morning, she knocks on the doors of the houses to offer her owners her services in the field of "cleaning, manicures, and washing dishes". She accepts every job she has in these areas, but sometimes she barely earns a meal.

As for Jacqueline Ardevy, 36, an independent fashion designer, she lost her only source of income due to the epidemic.

The textile factory she was cooperating with in Cali, Colombia's third largest city, has kept only permanent employees.

This led Jacqueline to devote himself to "housework", and devote himself to caring for her seven-year-old son, after her mother-in-law took care of him until recently.

Soon, the debt began to pile up.

"I didn't say anything, but sometimes I woke up in the morning crying because of my anxiety," explains the young woman, who feels her health is deteriorating.

But despite the anxieties, Jacqueline and her husband borrowed money to set up a workshop to manufacture sportswear and corsets for women undergoing surgery for breast cancer.

• The emerging "Corona" virus has deprived 2.5 million women of their official jobs.

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