Some 3,000 homeless individuals sat down for a festive Christmas charity dinner on Tuesday within the heart of Buenos Aires, at a time when greater than half of Argentina’s inhabitants is affected by poverty, one yr into ultra-liberal Javier Milei’s time period in workplace.
“I got here as a result of I really feel alone and it is unhappy,” stated Walter Villagra, a 54-year-old homeless man who survives by amassing cans after he misplaced his job as an electrician 4 years in the past.
Titled “No Household With out Christmas,” the occasion in entrance of the Nationwide Congress was held for the eighth consecutive yr, and Tuesday’s turnout exceeded organizers’ expectations.
“To say that it’s a particular yr as a result of there may be an increasing number of poverty is gloomy, however it’s true,” Mariana Gonzalez, spokesperson for the Motion of Excluded Staff, one of many organizers behind the occasion, instructed AFP. “There are an increasing number of individuals sleeping on the road and extra individuals coming to the soup kitchens as a result of they don’t have a plate of meals, it’s a very troublesome yr.”
Lengthy tables coated with tablecloths had been laid out on the road in entrance of Congress and the ambiance was joyful with floating balloons, music and clowns strolling on stilts.
Friends starting from single adults to aged {couples} and households with kids greeted the arrival of every of the vans carrying meals with shouts and applause.
Earlier than dinner, a few hundred individuals had been capable of take a bathe and get a haircut or a shave in tents arrange across the sq..
In line with the INDEC authorities statistics company, within the first half of the yr poverty jumped 11 factors and reached 52.9 p.c, 18.1 p.c of whom are homeless.
In the meantime, youngster poverty reached 66 p.c, affecting seven million kids beneath 14 years of age.
“This dinner exhibits that there’s loads of solidarity, however it isn’t sufficient,” stated Gonzalez.
Sitting at one of many tables, Juan Carlos Benitez, a 59-year-old homeless man, stated he was grateful for the chance to have a plate of meals and in addition “snort a bit and discuss to somebody” this Christmas.
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