In a small house on the outskirts of Lima, Peruvian Gabriela Zarate lives with her husband and eight children. Four are her own. The other four, two girls aged seven and 15 and two boys aged nine and 12, are children of their younger sister, Katherine.
There is not enough space for them all. The boys sleep as a pair in a bunk bed, while the girls share a tiny room at the back of the house.
“It’s always been a struggle to put food on the table for my family,” says Gabriela, “and with four more kids, it’s even harder.”
In June 2020, when Peru was already struggling to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, Katherine was infected with the coronavirus. Hospitals were overcrowded, supplies ran out, and relatives watched their loved ones die without being able to help them.
When Katherine could not be admitted, Gabriela had no option but to take her home. She was all the time lying on a mattress. He struggled to breathe, but his family couldn’t afford oxygen. Katherine grew weaker and weaker.
A week later, she died.
One of the last things Katherine did was ask Gabriela to take care of her children. The father never participated in the children’s lives; has health problems and suffers from alcoholism. Katherine didn’t want her children to end up in foster care, so Gabriela agreed to take care of them.
It has not been easy. When the government imposed a lockdown during the worst moment of the pandemic, Gabriela and her husband began to wonder what they would do. “I used to drive a motorcycle taxi and sell sweets on the street,” says Gabriela. “But then we were told to stay home and I was worried: how were we going to feed them all?”
united family
In order to earn some money, her husband started to make and deliver takeaways during the lockdown, which was illegal. That’s when he also had Covid-19 and stopped working. “We were very scared that he would die,” she says, “but in the end he recovered.”
At the worst times, when neither of them could go out to work, Gabriela would hang a white flag outside her house to show that she needed support. Neighbors began bringing him sacks of potatoes and other food.
Peru was hit hard by Covid-19, with more than 200,000 deaths in a population of less than 33 million. It’s the worst death rate in the world.
One of the most tragic effects of the pandemic is the number of orphaned children.
There are at least 93,000 of them, according to the scientific journal The Lancet. Even if one of the parents is still alive, they are called “Covid orphans”. In Brazil, this number is even higher: 113,000, according to the publication.
Many face a daily struggle to survive. Financially and emotionally too.
Katherine’s children, like many others, have difficulty talking about their mother. Her 15-year-old daughter saw her die and Gabriela says the girl is traumatized. She doesn’t talk about what happened to anyone.
Children remember their mother with longing.
“I miss my mom,” says Katherine’s nine-year-old son. “She used to take us out on the streets to play with us.”
Helping children like them is a task that professionals like Andrea Ramos are dedicated to. She is a social worker for the local municipality in two poor areas of Lima. Her desk is littered with paper, and she relies on residents to get in touch via WhatsApp to alert anyone who needs help.
Poverty, he says, is getting worse due to rising unemployment as a result of the pandemic. This, in turn, is leading to more frustration and violence at home.
“We have many children with mental health problems who are afraid to leave the house because they were confined during the worst moments of the pandemic,” explains Andrea.
There are workshops to help families deal with children who are at home all day with online classes and how to resolve fights and keep tempers in check.
For some families, life is slowly improving. Gabriela now receives government-approved grants for each of her nephews and nieces. It’s just the equivalent of R$300 a month per child, but that means she can buy them more food and print their homework.
The kids take online classes two days a week and they share as little space as they can. Despite missing their mother, they say they like living with their aunt. It’s fun to play soccer in the street with the cousins, although they sometimes end up arguing, they say.
While professionals like Andrea are concerned about the long-term effects the pandemic will have on “Covid’s orphans”, Gabriela’s nephews and nieces have ambitions for the future. The eldest daughter wants to be a lawyer, the two boys, police officers and the other a doctor.
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