From the Pacific to the Caribbean, there are thousands of Nicaraguans who cannot have all three meals on their tables every day. The lack of formal jobs, precarious income, the economic recession and the socio-political crisis that is dragging the country are part of the reasons for hunger in Nicaragua.
On a normal day, Ramón Austin sees it as a “miracle” to have two meals. “We start the day without eating, because there is simply nothing to eat. If you can and find something, you come to eat with your family around two in the afternoon and, if there is enough left, you eat a little more at night ”, says the man: a 63-year-old native of the community of Francia Sirpi, in the North Caribbean of Nicaragua, and who all his life has dedicated himself to agriculture.
Austin has a family of seven for whom he fights every day so that they do not go hungry. Your journey begins at sunrise. He goes to the “bush” to see if he can get some kind of musaceous, tubers, firewood, fruits or something to hunt. “Living off the land is difficult,” he confesses. And in the Caribbean, to these difficulties are added the risks due to the invasion of settlers, the disastrous effects of floods and the aftermath such as those left by hurricanes Eta and Iota, which in less than fifteen days, in November 2020, impacted the region in category five.
“We sow between the third and fifth month of the year and we see our crops between five and 10 months later, but everything was washed away by the hurricanes and now we are starving,” laments Austin. The farmer explains that his crops – which at this time would be his supplies – were washed away by the hurricanes.
In France Sirpi, farmers have returned to planting their plots, but fear that their crops will be washed away by floods or stolen by settlers.
Go hungry in Managua: Find a job “with an empty belly”
In Managua, the capital, they also go hungry. Patricia Lanzas, 32, has four young children and, together with her partner, struggles to guarantee three meal times with the income she earns from informal jobs.
“I dedicate myself to whatever comes out. I wash, iron and clean houses, but I have not had a formal job since I was fired when the 2018 protests began, ”he says.
In the last three years of socio-political crisis and economic recession, more than 222,000 people they lost their job, according to the Economic Projection reports of the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Funides).
Lanzas has sought employment in a dozen businesses and homes in recent months. Find a place in the cleaning area or as a kitchen helper. “They tell you that they call you there, you spend on papers, tickets, I even go without eating, limited with the return ticket and they simply don’t call,” he laments.
Before 2018, Lanzas earned 4,500 córdobas a month as a home assistant. Now, with the sporadic jobs he gets, he doesn’t adjust even half. With 2000 córdobas a month, she makes sure that her children do not miss any time to eat, but she admits that the diet is not adequate.
“They are not given what they need, but we do what we can. At breakfast we can give them a cup of coffee with bread and with that they don’t walk with an empty stomach ”, he describes.
When children ask: “Is there something different to eat? “
In France Sirpi, hunger takes its toll on the family of farmer Ramón Austin. Due to lack of food, one of her grandchildren is malnourished. “ANDHe’s bad, all skinny, because we don’t have the necessary food, ”he says.
Also in the Esperanza community, on the Wawa River, where the hurricanes also left havoc, “María’s” family is starving and the children are the most affected.
LHurricanes Eta and Iota destroyed his plot and he is now trying to “get ahead” together with his 14 relatives. They have sown again, but there are eight months to go before the harvest.
“We have always lived off mother earth, but now men have to leave the territories, look for paid jobs to buy food, because now we don’t have a reserve and we are starving,” laments “María”, who is a community leader in the Esperanza and requested to reserve her identity to avoid harassment.
Once or twice a week, three relatives of “María” cross into Honduras, where they receive 150 córdobas for a day’s work.
“Normally, with the little that is obtained from our land, one eats once a day, but when men achieve a day they can be two times, but everything is expensive, with that little that they get they buy the basics: oil, sugar or soap, and it does not allow children to have a good diet ”, he laments.
“María” assures that the children are “quite used to eating less than three times a day”, but she says that her “little heart” becomes when they ask if there is “something different” to eat.
“When they eat a lot of the same, because here we solve with cassava, bananas or rice, they begin to ask when they are going to eat something else, when they are going to eat meat, but due to the invasion we can no longer go hunting as before and we do not eat as before ”, he laments. The afternoon that “María” spoke with CONFIDENTIAL, his only meal time was “guabul”, a dish made from banana and coconut milk.
The cycle of widespread hunger in the Nicaraguan Caribbean
José Coleman, a collaborator of the Egdolina Thomas Foundation, affirms that the problem of hunger is widespread in the indigenous and Miskito communities of the North Caribbean of Nicaragua. The organization is present in 22 communities in the Twi Waupasa and Twi Yahbra territories, where they have verified the hunger suffered by its inhabitants.
“The aid that arrived after the hurricanes has not been so effective … it has not been systematic, it has not allowed the communities to survive,” he laments.
Coleman details that to date “many community members have not been able to go up to their traditional cultivation areas because there are many fallen trees, others because they fear the advance of colonist invasions, they do not have tools to clean the roads or raw material to start planting. ”.
Juan Carlos Ocampo is a member of Prilka, an organization that works in more than 20 communities of the teTwi Yahbra, Wangki Twi and Li Lamni territories. Ocampo agrees with Coleman that “the problem of food insecurity is widespread”, adding that there is a loss of “people’s ability to produce food.”
He values that the cooperation they have received is “welfare” and regrets that it does not seek to strengthen capacities in the medium and long term and, instead, has created a vicious cycle. “There must be a logic, a long-term sustainability strategy, where there is a certain recovery of capacities,” he recommends.
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