The importance of community
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 8:33 am
During the pandemic, in one of the WhatsApp groups I'm in, one morning a former colleague appeared asking for help: Luis, the husband of the domestic worker in his house, had COVID, he had been told to isolate himself, so he was alone in his house located in a cité in the Franklyn neighborhood. He felt bad and very weak, so he didn't have the strength to prepare food. They had tried to send him a delivery service, or an Uber, so that food could reach him every day, but those services didn't reach that area. They are Venezuelan, so they don't have relatives or people to lean on in Chile either.
It seemed rather inefficient to send him food from the other side of Santiago, and the idea that a sick person was abandoned to his fate seemed disastrous to me. Without knowing much, I began to ask in the networks of foundations and corporations through the different chats, and some mentioned that there were common pots organized by the neighbors them singapore phone number list selves and that they went out to distribute food by bicycle to those who could not pick up the food. After a while of asking, I had the direct contact of Natalia, a community leader from the Plaza Bogotá sector , and also the Facebook of the Residents' Council , where the contact of its president Rodrigo appeared. I spoke with them and they offered me help. At 2 pm, Luis had already received two meals and a box of basic necessities that “Pollo”, leader of another organization, brought him. We had also organized a calendar so that he had food every day of the week. I did not know any of them... but they were willing to help.
I am not writing this to say that Chileans are supportive. I am saying this because I am convinced that it is worth highlighting the role of the neighborhood. We live locked up, we do not know the person next door, there is no neighborhood life. This is transversal to all sectors, but it becomes even worse if you live in a place where there are drugs and you live in fear of going out, then you cannot create networks. But in crises we realize that having support in the territories can be a matter of life or death, it is a matter of subsistence . How many of us have stopped to talk to the person next door? How many of us know if there is an elderly person living alone? How many of us have the neighbor's phone number?
There is a lot of work to be done, and supporting community organizations and their leaders is part of that work. They are the ones who can get to know the people who live in the territories, identify those who are alone, those who are unemployed, those who suffer from an illness. Without creating close collaboration with them, it will not be possible to move forward to solve this and many other crises. I applaud and am surprised once again by what the different organizations are doing in the communities. Today I can attest that they are necessary, fundamental! That is why we must take care of them and strengthen them, because having a network of good neighbors can change the lives of many.
It seemed rather inefficient to send him food from the other side of Santiago, and the idea that a sick person was abandoned to his fate seemed disastrous to me. Without knowing much, I began to ask in the networks of foundations and corporations through the different chats, and some mentioned that there were common pots organized by the neighbors them singapore phone number list selves and that they went out to distribute food by bicycle to those who could not pick up the food. After a while of asking, I had the direct contact of Natalia, a community leader from the Plaza Bogotá sector , and also the Facebook of the Residents' Council , where the contact of its president Rodrigo appeared. I spoke with them and they offered me help. At 2 pm, Luis had already received two meals and a box of basic necessities that “Pollo”, leader of another organization, brought him. We had also organized a calendar so that he had food every day of the week. I did not know any of them... but they were willing to help.
I am not writing this to say that Chileans are supportive. I am saying this because I am convinced that it is worth highlighting the role of the neighborhood. We live locked up, we do not know the person next door, there is no neighborhood life. This is transversal to all sectors, but it becomes even worse if you live in a place where there are drugs and you live in fear of going out, then you cannot create networks. But in crises we realize that having support in the territories can be a matter of life or death, it is a matter of subsistence . How many of us have stopped to talk to the person next door? How many of us know if there is an elderly person living alone? How many of us have the neighbor's phone number?
There is a lot of work to be done, and supporting community organizations and their leaders is part of that work. They are the ones who can get to know the people who live in the territories, identify those who are alone, those who are unemployed, those who suffer from an illness. Without creating close collaboration with them, it will not be possible to move forward to solve this and many other crises. I applaud and am surprised once again by what the different organizations are doing in the communities. Today I can attest that they are necessary, fundamental! That is why we must take care of them and strengthen them, because having a network of good neighbors can change the lives of many.