Some 3,000 homeless folks sat down for a festive Christmas charity dinner on Tuesday within the heart of Buenos Aires, at a time when greater than half of Argentina’s inhabitants is affected by poverty, one 12 months into ultra-liberal Javier Milei’s time period in workplace.
“I got here as a result of I really feel alone and it is unhappy,” mentioned Walter Villagra, a 54-year-old homeless man who survives by amassing cans after he misplaced his job as an electrician 4 years in the past.
Titled “No Household With out Christmas,” the occasion in entrance of the Nationwide Congress was held for the eighth consecutive 12 months, and Tuesday’s turnout exceeded organizers’ expectations.
“To say that it’s a particular 12 months as a result of there may be increasingly poverty is unhappy, however it’s true,” Mariana Gonzalez, spokesperson for the Motion of Excluded Staff, one of many organizers behind the occasion, informed AFP. “There are increasingly folks sleeping on the road and extra folks coming to the soup kitchens as a result of they don’t have a plate of meals, it’s a very troublesome 12 months.”
Lengthy tables coated with tablecloths have been laid out on the road in entrance of Congress and the environment was joyful with floating balloons, music and clowns strolling on stilts.
Visitors starting from single adults to aged {couples} and households with kids greeted the arrival of every of the vans carrying meals with shouts and applause.
Earlier than dinner, a couple of hundred folks have been in a position to take a bathe and get a haircut or a shave in tents arrange across the sq..
In line with the INDEC authorities statistics company, within the first half of the 12 months poverty jumped 11 factors and reached 52.9 p.c, 18.1 p.c of whom are homeless.
In the meantime, youngster poverty reached 66 p.c, affecting seven million kids below 14 years of age.
“This dinner reveals that there’s loads of solidarity, however it’s not sufficient,” mentioned Gonzalez.
Sitting at one of many tables, Juan Carlos Benitez, a 59-year-old homeless man, mentioned he was grateful for the chance to have a plate of meals and likewise “chortle a bit and speak to somebody” this Christmas.
sa/atm/md/jgc
