Aida, 63, in Rio de Janeiro, prefers to sleep rather than face an empty table on Christmas night. Elaine, 39, from Salvador, arrives on the day of supper, rationing food for the family. Rosali, 47, from Maceió, lives in a new wooden house, but the refrigerator should remain empty this year-end.
THE Sheet revisited this month people in vulnerable situations in four Brazilian capitals and metropolitan regions and found that food insecurity still affects the table of the poorest households.
Aida Herminio dos Santos, 63, has a plan for Christmas Eve: sleep. The resident of Nova Iguaçu, in Baixada Fluminense, says that she is receiving the Auxílio Brasil, but is on a tight budget, which prevents her from preparing a supper for her family on the festive date.
Like so many other Brazilians, her pockets are still under pressure from inflation.
“My Christmas will be like this: I’ll spend it sleeping. Unfortunately, I can’t set up a table and receive my family here. That time is long gone”, says Aida, who lives with her partner.
In March of this year, she was interviewed by Sheet for a story on long-term unemployment. At the time, he had been out of work for two years, since the start of the pandemic.
After the publication of the article, Aida received donations and managed to go back to cooking with gas cylinders, an item that had been replaced by a wood stove due to the high prices.
The resident of Baixada Fluminense, however, continues without a steady job. The payment of the Auxílio Brasil –increased by the federal government in August to R$600– helped with expenses, but she says she is still seeking donations to support the house.
During the year, Aida also took care of two grandchildren. “It’s still tight. There are days when we have rice and beans, and sometimes we don’t have the mix”, she says.
His desire is to return to the job market, but age is considered an additional obstacle to getting a job. “They even arranged a job for me, but, at 63, they prefer younger people.”
Before the pandemic, Aida worked as a caregiver for the elderly. She would like to return to a role in that area.
“My desire is to go back to work. It makes me feel good. I like anything that helps,” he says.
In Maceió, having a fridge full for the family is a dream
Rosali Alexandre de Souza, 47, from Maceió, received the Sheet in his new house, made of wood after the collapse of the previous one during the rainy season that hit the Northeast. Getting rid of rent was the achievement of 2022, although he considers this his most suffered year.
Despite owning the property, the fridge remains empty.
“I’m not ashamed to say that today I’m going to eat some rice, some beans and I’m going to fry everybody a mortadella. the fridge empty practically every day”, she says.
Because of daughter Yasmin, 18, and granddaughter Jasmin, 7, the house was decorated for Christmas. On the door, a “Merry Christmas” message, lamps and a hat, as well as a few details scattered throughout the rooms, all made of recyclable material.
“From time to time, we are already getting meat and chicken, but we are not going to have a supper like that this year end. Rice and something we can get with a donation. It was my custom to get everyone together, eat well, but it is very difficult. You sees the fridge empty, as it was the other time they came, and it’s not a surprise. Not even in the pandemic it was like that “, he says.
Casa Tuca, which mediated the visit, took donations and carried out social actions to improve the quality of the families’ New Year’s Eve.
“What I really want is to have my own house and my fridge with conditions to help my whole family. It’s the dream that I won’t give up”, he said at the end of the visit, already with teary eyes.
Christmas will be another day of struggle for survival
In Salvador, at the beginning of each month, the pantry at the home of street vendor Elaine Costa Silva, 39, is, as far as possible, stocked to feed the five people who live there: she, her daughters Elaiza, 18, and Evelyn, 13, plus two nieces, Mileide, 17, and Ilana, 4.
From the third week onwards, it is necessary to ration until receiving the Auxílio Brasil, the family’s only fixed income. This Christmas month, the squeeze promises to be bigger, as Elaine doesn’t have any money left to produce the cleaning materials she usually sells on the streets of the capital of Bahia.
The R$ 600 of the benefit goes only to food. If sales were up to date, she says, the family would have an additional income of up to R$ 200 more. “The money is basically to buy food. After a lot of research, because everything is very expensive.”
Despite everyday difficulties, Elaine prefers to continue with uncertain sales than to have a job as a maid. “Since I didn’t study, I always worked with a family, but it was a lot of humiliation.”
Silva does not need to use the aid for housing expenses, such as rent, as he lives with his family in a wooden shack in the Vista Alegre neighborhood, on the outskirts of the Bahian capital.
On the other hand, cooking gas, whose 13 kg cylinder in Salvador costs from R$ 120, consumes almost 25% of household income. “When we run out of gas, if we don’t have money, we need to cook with firewood”, he says.
The water supply comes from a pipe from a neighbor’s property, which charges R$ 50 per month from the residents of the occupation. Electricity is clandestine.
The structure of the plywood-based shack is partially compromised every time it rains, he says. So they don’t rot, line the walls with pieces of plastic tarp.
Silva doesn’t even consider preparing something special to spend Christmas Eve with his family. “For us, it will be like any other day of fighting for survival. Nothing planned.”
She also says she has no reason to celebrate, since her son Yan Barros was murdered at age 19, in April 2021. The young man was found dead after being suspected of stealing meat from a supermarket in Salvador.
“The last time we celebrated Christmas, that we decorated the house, was in 2020, when my son was alive”, he says. “After they did that barbarity to him, which was the joy of the house, the end of the year here is just sadness”, she says.
Chester will return to the table in Heliopolis supper
This year, chester will return to Priscilla Ribeiro’s Christmas table, 42, a resident of Heliópolis, the largest favela in São Paulo. The housewife’s situation has improved compared to last year, when the celebration passed as “a normal day”.
Unemployed since the end of 2020, Priscilla has seen her income reduce to the amount of Auxílio Brasil over these two years. Eventual increases are due to informal sales, in their own homes, of açaí and popsicles.
Priscilla has seven children, and the budget has to support five of them. In some moments, the account did not close.
When she was interviewed by Sheet, in April 2021, had exchanged the meat that accompanied the rice and beans dish for egg and sausage. Today, food is back, but only twice a month.
“From the middle of the year to here, the price of the mixtures took a little fall”, he says. The drop in prices also made chicken come back to the plate three times a week and monthly purchases became possible again. About R$ 400 per month go to the market.
“During the pandemic, it was chopped. I only bought what was missing”, he says.
Despite the slight financial recovery, the family is still experiencing difficulties. The lack of money caused a water bill, for example, to be overdue for over a year. Only at the end of 2022 was the debt settled.
Sausage and frozen chicken are still on the menu when the bills get tight, and the Christmas shank, which Priscilla wanted for the party night, will stay for next year.
Occupation resident says she has no medicine
Interviewed by Sheet in 2021, Samantha Silva, 34, continues to live in a squat and claims that economic difficulties persist. The family, for example, uses firewood to save on cooking gas.
“We’re still struggling, especially with the rain these days. I had to use the stove and waste gas. But we have to thank God for having a roof. I’ve been receiving the Auxílio Brasil, it’s what’s helping me.”
She has been out of the job market for six years to take care of her family, and she has difficulty finding a job, even signing up for free professional outplacement courses. “I’m looking for any job, so I can take care of and feed my daughters, aged 16 and 10. I want to provide them with an education and decent housing,” says Samantha.
This year, she says she faces yet another problem: the difficulty in resuming lupus treatment. “When my husband lost his job, we had to hand over the house and, since then, we’ve been in the occupation and they took me out of the post. hematologist, dermatologist again. I’m out of medicine, the corticoid and the dose of chloroquine.”
Although reporting a lot of tiredness and discouragement because of the spots and pain of lupus, Samantha has faith in 2023. “God willing, next year will be a year of victories.”
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