Nila Velazquez

I was crossing the bridge that connects Urdesa with the Albán Borja shopping center, when I saw a woman sitting helplessly on the pavement. When I returned the same way, she had fallen and was lying in the same place. I parked the car, went over to see if I could help her and I noticed that she was really bad, I immediately thought that I had to take her to the emergency room, but I couldn’t get her into the vehicle by myself. I saw a gardener working in a nearby house and asked him for help, but he accepted on the condition that I take him back. We arrived at Luis Vernaza, as soon as I parked, they put her on a stretcher, they asked me some questions, and I couldn’t answer anything, because I didn’t know anything about her, they told me to wait. After a while they told me that they had called a social worker to identify and locate the person and that they would take him in because everything indicated that he was in a state of starvation and probably hadn’t eaten in the last few days. days.

When I was returning the gardener, he told me, “I thought that was it because that’s what happens when you don’t eat,” he told me as if he had experience. That happened a long time ago, 911 didn’t exist, and I remembered it because I realized in the conversation with Diakonia representatives that the situation hasn’t changed.

Diakonia comes from the Greek word diakonia, which means service. In 1966, a foundation with that name was founded in Sweden, which spread throughout the world. In Guayaquil, it is the work of the archdiocese. They receive donations from supermarkets, markets and companies. They receive, select, classify, store and deliver food to 199 social institutions serving food insecure people. 20 people work in Diakonia, but they have 329 volunteers, which enabled them to distribute a total of 5,160,760.24 kg of food in 2022. Semillas is their next project: comprehensive care for pregnant women and children in Pascuales.

There are several reasons for hunger: poverty, job instability, wastage…

According to FAO data, updated in October 2022, Ecuador is among the Latin American countries with the highest prevalence of hunger among the population. 15.4%, or 2.7 million Ecuadorians, suffer from hunger, but annually about 939 tons of food is lost in the production, harvest and post-harvest stages, and it is estimated that it is lost in Quito and Guayaquil.46,655 tons at the same time. Simply put, unused food becomes waste that goes in the trash. What is lost could feed 1.5 million people.

There are several reasons for hunger: poverty, job instability, wastage, poor infrastructure, lack of water, difficulties in transporting food. Climate change, corruption and, probably, the lack of adequate and ethical management. We would love to hear from those who want to lead the country on how to eliminate these causes, but since this is unlikely, we should not wait until this happens to take responsibility for the problem, whether through donations, volunteering or simply avoiding household waste. If we ignore that, what I once read on a wall in Quito will still be true: “Hunger is hereditary.” No, it wasn’t just graffiti, it was a scream we don’t hear or don’t want to hear. (OR)