By: Staff Writer
July 8, 2022
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said in a report that Afrodescendent women experienced excessive violence during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns with little or no avenues for social support.
ECLAC, in their latest report, “The sociodemographic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said that: “Government lockdown, physical distancing and movement restriction measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic increased women’s isolation from their support networks and have put up additional barriers to access to essential services. Governments in several countries reported a significant rise in calls to helplines or other support services for women survivors of violence during the strictest lockdowns.
The report added: “Violence against indigenous and Afrodescendent women and girls is equally alarming, since in these cases gender-based violence is combined with violence owing to racism and discriminatory inter-ethnic relations, often aggravated by overexploitation of natural resources, internal armed conflicts or the persecution and criminalization of women defenders of indigenous peoples’ and Afrodescendent communities’ lives and territories. In addition, there is concern that women and girls who are survivors of violence frequently do not have access to psychosocial support services or assistance in reporting such events.”
With the excessive lockdowns, women had nowhere to turn and suffered in silence during the pandemic. The home was under assault for Afrodescendent people as also school attendance obviously dropped and even online-learning had poor attendance, leading ECLAC to believe that there may be a mass drop-out rate for children between the age of 13-16.
The report also noted: “In addition to the repercussions for learning and its quality, it is estimated that there could be an increase in school dropout, particularly among adolescents and young people of low socioeconomic status, and adolescents and young people who are migrants, from indigenous communities, Afrodescendent and with disabilities, among other groups.
“Declines in school enrolment are also expected: UNESCO estimates indicate that 1.83 percent of students are at risk of dropping out in Latin America and the Caribbean, the second highest percentage worldwide. School dropout and lower enrolment are also triggered by loss of jobs in families, as this puts pressure on children and adolescents to drop out of school in order to reduce costs and also to join the labour market and thus contribute financially to households.”
Vaccination efforts continue to be a challenge as Caribbean and Central American countries are largely opting out of vaccination. “Countries such as Guatemala and Jamaica continue to have low vaccination rates, with less than 35 percent of the population fully vaccinated. In general, the distribution of and access to vaccines in Caribbean countries has been highly unequal, and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has identified countries where there are major institutional and logistical obstacles to accelerating vaccination. In Haiti, in particular, less than 1 percent of the population is fully vaccinated,” the report said
The report continued, “Vaccination against COVID-19 is seen as a key tool for controlling both the health crisis and the economic and social crisis triggered by the pandemic. The slow speed of vaccination in the region, and the great inequality of the process between countries, could result in the pandemic being protracted yet further and new variants of the virus appearing, threatening the effectiveness of existing vaccines.”