Villa 31, Argentinian slum
Audio 02:30
Mothers look after their children at Villa 31 in Buenos Aires.
© Théo Conscience
By: Théo Conscience Follow
6 mins
Direction Argentina, where three years of economic crisis and 16 months of pandemic have made more than seven million people fall into misery.
Poverty affects more than 4 in 10 Argentines, and children are the first victims: 65% of them live below the poverty line.
In the villas and shantytowns of Argentina, the situation of the youngest is dramatic, as our correspondent Théo Conscience observed.
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Amid the rubble and makeshift tents, children have fun chasing stray dogs.
With a sad smile on her face, Noelia keeps an eye on her 6-year-old daughter Mélina.
Like her, a hundred single mothers occupy this land in the middle of Villa 31. None of them has enough to pay rent in this shanty town of Buenos Aires.
"We've been here with our children for almost a month, in the rain, the cold, with mosquitoes, insects ... With temperatures of zero degrees like last night, our noses are frozen when we sleep"
In all, 175 children currently live on this former landfill.
The ground is still littered with rubble and garbage.
Brooms and shovels in hand, some try as best they can to clean the ground.
With a tired expression, her eyes darkened, Andrea points to the tent made of garbage bags and old tarpaulins in which she sleeps with her three daughters.
"It's sad to see the children here in these conditions, because they live without electricity, without running water, without toilets… We are only in a tent… We have nothing at all"
In the middle of the southern winter, these families sleep on damp mattresses placed on the floor.
The pandemic put an end to the small informal jobs that allowed them to survive.
Today, to feed themselves, they depend on social organizations, says Alicia, 29, in despair.
"We eat what they bring us, we live with what we can ... There are days when they give us food, and others not"
In addition to these dramatic conditions, these families live in constant fear of being evicted.
The land belongs to the city, which refuses to negotiate to find them a solution of rehousing, explains Mónica Zarate, of the Popular Movement for Dignity.
“Rather than dialogue, the only response from the city authorities is the police who come to harass us every day. Today we woke up to two bulldozers and police trucks. "
The city justifies this threat of eviction by the fact that a school must be built on this land.
A false excuse, according to Andrea, who explains that all the children are already educated in a school in the neighborhood.
“Why so many schools, if children have nowhere to live? First, they should have a house, and then a school, for their future of course. But without housing, I believe that there is no future ”
This situation of extreme precariousness is unfortunately not isolated in Argentina.
In Greater Buenos Aires, three out of four children do not have enough to eat, according to the Social Debt Observatory.
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