Humanitarian Aid to Street Vendors in Otavalo

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS APRIL / JUNE 2021 HUMANITARIAN AID TO INFORMAL VENDORS OF OTAVALO This executive report presents the systematization of the psychosocial support spaces implemented with 90 of the project participants, most of them women. Focusing on multiple domains of intelligence, individual and collective tools were applied to improve self-esteem, confidence and collaborative work, in order to face and cope with times of crisis. a. At a general level, some aspects that were manifested among all these meetings will be specified, so the guiding axis of the dialogue with each beneficiary was to talk on positive and negative aspects experienced throughout the pandemic. Among the negative aspects we find: Debts: Debts for rent, basic services, close people, and the burden of facing day-to-day difficulties in meeting financial obligations with banks and credit unions generated a high level of concern and restlessness in the vast majority of participants. Concern increased with debts that were not paid, so our beneficiaries were reported to credit bureaus and they could no longer access credit to invest in their informal sales businesses and other activities that would allow them to generate more incomes. This happened in the same way in cases in which support was required to obtain the necessary inputs for planting productive crops of fruit trees and vegetables. Fear: The fear of the pandemic, dead and being far away from people they love and who depend on them, is present in most cases. This fear increased in those who were more exposed to television and mass media, watching the news, feeding their feeling of fear for the pandemic along with it the concern. This fear of death, of the virus, puts the participants on a particular condition of vulnerability, generating very complicated situations for some. Several women related how they stayed alone at night, crying, without letting their children see them, going through enormous suffering motivated by the existing uncertainty about the present and the near future. Informality: Instability in income generation through informal sales has been another major concern. This situation impacts on multiple dimensions of their lives, such as not having access to health, pensions, and what social security implies. In the same way, not having any certainty about the income to be obtained the next day, and having to expose oneself to long and intense hours of work to be able to generate income, increases the burden of concern for the participants. Persecution: The municipal police persecute informal vendors, in some cases taking their merchandise from them. This is a cause of great concern for the participants because, in addition to coping with the difficulties of working in the streets, they suffer from harassment from the agents who persecute them, including cases of verbal and physical abuse. This situation gets worst in public spaces, only seeing coercive  measures  that  are  applied  with  no  viable  alternatives  provided  to  improve  the  situation  of informal  vendors. Education:  the  education  of  the  participant´s  children  has  become  a  problem  in  terms  of  the  demands made  by  teachers  on  performance,  with  activities  that  require  the  accompaniment  of  parents  who  have no  one  to  leave  their  children  with.  Either  they  are  left  alone  in  their  homes  or  taken  to  the  streets  to sell  their  parent´s  products.  There  is  also  a  difficult  situation  in  terms  of  connectivity  as  various beneficiaries  do  not  have  internet  access  in  their  homes  and  must  use  their  phones  -  the  ones  who  have them  -  for  send  the  tasks,  with  regular  payments  to  have  internet  access,  an  expense  that  is  important in  relation  to  the  income  they  get. Health:  Access  to  the  public  health  system  has  been  closed  due  to  the  pandemic.  Only  cases  of  COVID19  are  treated  in  the  hospital  -whose  capacity  has  collapsed-.  In  addition,  people  is  afraid  of  going  to health  centers  and  being  infected.  People  with  serious  health  problems  cannot  get  appointments because  they  are  not  assigned  in  a  proper  time,  and  also  they  don´t  have  the  resources  to  access  private health  entities. b.  Now, among  the  positive  aspects  that  were  identified  we  can  mention: Resilience:  Several  people  stated  that  an  articulation  was  generated  at  the  family  level  and  between neighbors  to  respond  to  the  emergency,  in  which  solidarity  was  strengthened  by  carrying  out  actions that  gave  mutual  support  between  individuals  and  families.  Thus,  those  who  cultivate  some  products such  as  vegetables  exchanged  them  with  other  people  according  to  the  needs  of  each  one,  as  an important  help  to  solve  day-to-day  needs.  In  the  same  way,  there  have  been  support  spaces  between neighbors  sharing  their  concerns  and  difficult  emotional  situation  during  the  crisis,  opening  important communication  channels  through  dialogue  that  contribute  to  the  strengthening  of  the  social  and individual  well-being. Family:  In  all  cases  there  has  been  a  strengthening  of  the  relationships  inside  families  in  which  mutual support  has  been  essential  to  be  able  to  carry  out  daily  activities,  allowing  subsistence  and  fulfilling  the basic  needs  that  are  achieved  with  the  available  resources.  Fathers,  mothers,  uncles,  grandparents, children,  cousins,  who  in  many  cases  lives  nearby,  have  strengthened  their  ties  by  supporting  each  other with  the  available  resources  at  hand.  In  several  cases,  food  was  cooked  together  to  save  money  and  at the  same  time  satisfy everyone's  alimentary  needs  as  much  as  possible. It  has  also  been  possible  to  spend  more  time  with  the  family,  because  before  the  pandemic  almost  all the  participants  stated  that  each  member  of  their  households  were  living  life  on  their  own,  being together  only  at  night.  During  the  crisis  of  the  pandemic  and  its  restrictions,  these  families  have  had more time for their  members  to  spend  time  together,  sharing  spaces  and  activities,  concerns  and  needs, games  and  stories,  which  has  contributed  enormously  to  improving  and  strengthening  intra-family relationships. Innovation:  Definitely  many  of  the  informal  vendors  are  entrepreneurs  who  work  hard  to  bring  food  to their  homes  on  a  daily  basis.  The  crisis  has  led  many  people  to  develop  their  own  business  ideas  in  an empirical  way,  either  with  the  sale  of  food  prepared  at  home,  selling  trash  bags,  vegetables  and  fruits  in different  spaces. Some  of  the  participants  have  started  ventures  in  the  field  of  tourism, such  as  the  sale of  prepared  meals  and  handicrafts  in  places  of  public  influx  such  as  the  shore  of  Lake  San  Pablo.  The crisis  opened  the  door  for  many  to  innovate  and  turn  around  their  activities,  positively  impacting  the generation of  income  for  their  own  livelihood. Sowing:  Several  persons  and  families  engaged  in  general  service  jobs,  sales  in  shops  and  others.  They were  unemployed  and  engaged  in  informal  sales  to  survive.  Many  of  them  have  their  own  terrains  that have  begun  to  cultivate  together  with  relatives  and  neighbors  so  that  short-cycle  products  such  as cabbage,  carrots,  tomatoes,  and  in  general  vegetables  have  been  harvested,  helping  to  respond  to  the food´s  needs  of  the  families.  The  deep  introspection  of  several  of  the  participants  in  this  regard  is  that returning  to  the  rural  work  at  food  production  is  very  important  and  necessary  to  improve  their  own subsistence  conditions. Introspection:  The  confinement  and  the  difficult  conditions  given  by  the  crisis  led  many  of  the beneficiaries  to  question  themselves  about  their  modus  vivendi  before  the  pandemic.  Their  habits, behavior  patterns  and  forms  of  interrelation  with  others  were  put  on  the table  in  a  conscientious analysis that  led  many  people  to  rethink  the  way  they  lived,  reorienting  their  actions  and  behaviors  towards  a more  supportive  and  understanding  stance  towards  loved  ones,  social  relationships  with  others  and livelihoods. c.  After  hearing  about  the  problems  expressed  by  the  beneficiaries,  several  points  were  identified  in which  each  one  could  improve  their  personal  situation  by  making  use  of  the  resources  available  at  hand and  depending  on the  capacities  identified  in  each  one,  such  as: Improvement  of  family  relationships:  In  several  cases,  a  complicated  situation  regarding  intra-family relationships  was  evidenced.  Disputes  between  father  and  mother,  or  between  parents  and  children,  as well  as  between  siblings are  part  of  the  problems  faced  by  some  of  the  beneficiaries.  They  were  guided in  the  sense  of  seeking  to  improve  these  relationships  through  dialogue,  seeking  that  the reestablishment  of  interpersonal  relationships  with  family  members  allows  generating  spaces  of  mutual support  and  solidarity  to  respond  to  the  challenges  of  the  crisis experienced. Diversification  of  income  /  use  of  available  resources:  Some  of  the  participants  see  their  economic capacity  diminished  when  they  seek  to  generate  income  with  the  same  activities  that  were  carried  o before the pandemic. In this sense, other options and alternatives were investigated, guiding the beneficiaries to look for novel ways to be able to transform their reality with a vision of the future, planning and organization at the household level and with the available resources. In certain cases, some of the participants were invited to start or continue their studies at the secondary and higher education level, motivating them as it is evident that certain profiles have this capacity. Control / management of emotions: as one of the most critical aspects in this pandemic has been the low self-esteem of the participants for the aforementioned reasons, much emphasis has been placed on highlighting each of them that in fact they do have the ability of being able to face the situation despite the diversity, and the importance that each person believes in himself as an engine of change and transformation in their lives and environment. Depending on the case, they were made to see that they had the capacities to get ahead, a motivation that in all cases was important and well received because upon leaving the sessions the beneficiaries expressed that being able to vent their problems, motivation and encouragement gave strength to continue and move forward. The beneficiaries were also guided to put a stop to the fears and fears that are cultivated in the mind through breathing exercises and mind control, as part of the exercise of self-control necessary to cope with a crisis situation. 

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