“We don’t have anything to eat” .. A boy appeals to the police from hunger and provokes the sympathy of Brazil
Celia Barros' refrigerator was empty a week ago, and there was nothing to feed her children's hunger, but today this single Brazilian mother hardly finds space to save food, as donations poured in from everywhere after her 11-year-old son called the police for help.
The young man, Miguel, who responded to him, said, “Dear Police, we have nothing to eat at home.”
The boy’s move came after three days, during which the seven family members who lived in a room under the roof of a building in Santa Luzia, near Belo Horizonte (southeast) were eating. Just cornmeal mixed with water.
The policeman who received the phone call sent officers to the scene, believing that the family's conditions were caused by parental neglect.
But what the officers encountered upon their arrival is a very familiar scene in Brazil, which is a mother unable to feed her children because inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the poorest citizens in Brazil, which has the largest economy in Latin America.
The police went to a store to buy food for family members.
While they paid part of the price, the store manager donated the rest after the officers explained to him why they were in the neighborhood.
When the local press took up this painful story, Brazilians from all over the country were touched by the Barros family's tragedy, donations started pouring in, and the family's formerly devoid cramped kitchen looked like a convenience store.
"We received a lot of foods and other goods and types of food that I didn't know before," the boy, Miguel, told AFP, as he opened a cupboard full of food.
As for his mother, Celia (46 years), she has eight children and is currently raising six of them on her own. She sighs while carrying her youngest son, who is an infant. “We have suffered a lot. Hunger is very painful.
I will never forget those moments.”
“Sometimes I didn't have the strength just to get up," she says.
When Miguel noticed that I was in despair and crying constantly, he decided to take action.
Our situation is completely different from before.”
"We have received so much assistance until today that I am able to help others after I was suffering from a complete lack of food," she says.
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