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Clemencia Tamayo, activist against hunger and poverty in Colombia
Clemencia Tamayo, volunteer of the Saciar foundation for more than 20 years, with the children of the comuna 7-Vallejuelos de Medellin © Najet Benrabaa / RFI
Text by: Najet Benrabaa Follow
5 mins
When she joined the Saciar Foundation, a food bank, in 1999, Clemencia Tamayo was far from imagining that 23 years later, we would still need her help.
Since the pandemic, poverty has increased further and finding enough food to feed the poorest is a daily challenge.
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From our correspondent in Medellin,
For Clemencia Tamayo, it all started with a medical diagnosis.
When the doctors tell her she has lymphoma, her world comes crashing down.
We are in 1992. Clemencia is 32 years old.
And if nothing guarantees her recovery and her survival, there is no question of her giving up.
After a fierce fight and several treatments, the nurse specializing in the detection of breast cancer manages to defeat the disease.
It is then a relief that pushes her to reflect.
"
I saw death up close,
" she says 30 years later, in a canteen of
the Saciar Foundation
in Medellin.
I took stock of my life and my way of life.
I thought to myself that God had given me a new opportunity and I didn't want to waste it.
So, I decided to use it to serve others.
So I became a full-time volunteer with the Saciar Foundation.
I have other financial resources that allow me to no longer work as a nurse.
»
From administrative management to the distribution of parcels or serving meals in the temple-canteens of the foundation (the reception site has a chapel for praying in addition to serving as a cafeteria), Clemencia is on all fronts.
She is a fighter with a tender heart.
Her generous shapes and her big smile attract all children.
In this canteen of the "Comuna 7-Vallejuelos", impossible to go 100 meters without a child falling into his arms.
This tenderness nourishes his fight which has broken his heart more than once.
Poverty is a painful sight.
“
It's sad to realize that the meal that children and the elderly eat in our canteens is their only meal of the day.
This is especially the case for the elderly,
notes Clemencia Tamayo
.
They are seen trying to save some food for later.
It's also sad to see that Monday is the day when the children eat with the most appetite because in fact, that means that during the weekend, they were not fed enough.
»
The rising poverty rate
“
The reward for volunteer work comes with time,
” says the volunteer
.
Little by little, the links are forged.
Confidence, smiles and joy are back
.
In the neighborhood canteen, twelve tables with twelve seats are set up in a parish.
Near the entrance, a self-service chapel is available.
Fifteen mothers are busy serving the meals.
All are volunteers and most have their children seated at these tables.
On the menu today, soup accompanied by breaded fish, rice and salad.
Between the laughter and the hubbub of discussions, poverty is invisible to the naked eye.
It looks like a cafeteria of an ordinary school of 110 students.
Yet it is ubiquitous.
“Over time, we notice changes in the behavior of people who come here,
observes Clemencia again.
But hunger does not change!
It's still there!
Every day, living conditions in the country continue to deteriorate.
It is more and more difficult
.
In Colombia, more than 21 million people live in poverty.
The 13 canteens of the Saciar Foundation are not enough, nor are the donations.
According to Clemencia, they have gone down because the donors are also having financial problems.
Inflation of more than 12% in the Andean country has something to do with it.
Rising prices are holding back donations.
The Saciar Foundation was founded on the model of the French Restos du Coeur, more than 20 years ago.
When it was created in 1999, the former director of the Alliance française de Medellin helped Colombian families create the country's first food bank.
More than 20 years later, the foundation distributes food parcels to 108,000 people, with the support of more than 400 humanitarian organizations, and 1,500 eat every day in the canteens.
“
Today, more than ever, the existence of food banks is necessary.
Recently, a new canteen was opened in the "comuna 13-San Javier", near the site where there was a mass grave for victims of the armed conflict,
Clemencia still indicates.
We are exhuming them.
»
This violence is another factor in increasing poverty.
The majority of the beneficiaries Clemencia receives are displaced persons or refugees who have fled their native regions because of violence or threats.
It is in this context that the foundation was created.
The armed conflict with the guerrillas drove the exodus of millions of Colombians.
The peace agreements signed in 2016
have not solved anything.
“
It's peace in quotes.
Hunger, violence and the flow of displaced people continue.
»
►
Also to listen:
In Medellín, food banks as a daily bulwark against poverty
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