Luciano Nohemias Colop Haz is the director of the biggest school TINFA work with, with 700 students.
Luciano is sharing how the situation is in Guatemala and for the community in the area of El Palmar.
“It is a privilege for me to be able to share my story with the TINFA organization, as they have given us the opportunity to embrace technology in our school and be connected to the world.
COVID-19 is also connecting us. and this is what is happening in Calahuache.
On Friday, March 13, 2020, everything seemed normal and quiet. Radio and television news talked about the Coronavirus. Some children took it as a joke, feeling protected by the remoteness of our community.
Classes at school developed normally. The children said goodbye to their teacher with a kiss, and between smiles and bustling with joy, they retreated. Everyone walked with the certainty that soon on Monday, they would fervently sing the National Anthem of Guatemala.
It was then, that what we considered distant entered through the door of our homeland. President Alejandro Giammattei declared the first case of COVID 19 in Guatemala. The alarms inside were triggered. We were no longer untouchable or invincible. We were like everyone else, vulnerable. Our fragility to an invisible enemy capable of undermining our weak social structure was revealed . The President ordered the suspension of classes indefinitely.
The news and the presidential order felt like a bucket of cold water; especially because children were retiring indefinitely, without first having organized schoolwork or creating a work system for home learning. The motto : "STAY AT HOME".
At first everything seemed beautiful. It sounded like a half-year vacation: a well-deserved family break. However, as the restrictions changed, public transport stopped. We're starting to come across our harshest reality. Our poverty. As the days passed, our house became a small place of confinement. There wasn't enough room to live together as a family.
It became more clear why many of our children in rural areas stay longer in the streets than at home. The street for them is a respite for freedom, and our house is a small space for confinement.
Knowing that the children were without school, the Ministry of Education launched the educational strategy, APPRENDO EN CASA, where children could receive math and communication and language classes, through a television channel. Likewise, this educational program shows our poverty. Not all households have a TV. Therefore, the poorest, once again, are excluded from the right to education.
Some teachers decided to give homework via WhatsApp, creating a learning group. But likewise, it emphasizes that a large majority do not handle social media. Some still have call-only phones, which we call here, FRIJOLITOS. Some others don't even have a phone.
After considering that the measures taken by the authorities were not enough to counteract the spread of the virus, and in order to minimize gatherings, it was decided to implement the TOQUE DE QUEDA. From 4:00pm to 4:00am, we shall not leave our home.
TOQUE DE QUEDA is a meaningless expression for many young people, especially children. They don’t know what it means. For adults however, TOQUE DE QUEDA brings up bad memories of the armed conflict : memories of a government of dictatorship.
Under the ignorance of what curfew involved, the young men took it as fun. They played cat and mouse with the authorities. They relieved their memories of the children's game, police and thieves. Many from their balconies peeked out to see who the cops were catching. In some cases, they were people who had gone to the store for a soda. It turned out to be the most expensive soda they've ever bought.
Adults, for their part, are finding their limitations in being able to work. Economic resources begin to be limited and basic food in the household begins to be scarce. Many of the parents have been laid off from their job, which further aggravate the situation.
Now it isn’t all fun anymore, it isn’t a vacation anymore. We are now a family in a lock down, faced with its reality, its limitations, its poverty. Now he is a father who can't give his children food. Now the mother is doing wonders in the kitchen with some beans. Today more than ever many parents, but especially children, yearn for the school lunch, much more than classes even.
The Ministry of Education ordered the delivery of food to parents to mitigate the situation. The supplied bag contained the usual; a few pounds of rice and beans. Some distressed mothers suggest the possibility of including for an upcoming delivery some chicken, in order to vary the feeding they have been serving since the beginning of quarantine. People are already a little bored of rice and beans.
In response to this concern, a group of school teachers decided to give the families most in need an extra bag, containing the products for a special lunch.
Meanwhile, confinement continues. We only live in the hope of coming back to freedom very soon, to take to the streets and meet with friends, to attend school and hug with classmates, to reunite as a family and visit the grandmother we left alone.
Today more than ever, I long to breathe freedom. I've learned that nothing is worth more than life. I've learned that we're more fragile than we think and that our end is closer than we imagine.
For the time being, I will remain locked up, certain to be a witness of a major event in the world history, a history that has been written with the blood of our grandparents who have already left this world. Their faces will be engraved in the hearts of our current heroes, who are caring and healing us until the end. I want to say thank you with a strong applause.
Perhaps I was asleep and when I wake up, it will be just a dream. “