The pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has aggravated the vulnerability situation of many families. To minimize the social impacts caused by COVID-19, Instituto TIM has decided to add efforts to the action promoted by the Instituto Biomob NGO for ensuring the feeding of families of impaired people in communities from the cities of Petrópolis, Duque de Caxias, Mesquita and Rio de Janeiro. By means of the Mútua-Gesto Solidário campaign, over 600 families are receiving monthly “food baskets”, a stunt that ensures food safety of at least 3 thousand people in vulnerability situations.
The campaign intends to meet two aspects: the first one is that mothers of impaired children need to keep an even harsher lockdown because the comorbidity degree of their children is high. Moreover, as they are caretakers, they are not part of the labour market. The second aspect is that of the survival of small suburban businesses, strongly affected by social isolation. “We have decided to perform a double-stack action: donating food baskets to these families and buying from the local market to strengthen this flow”, explains Valmir de Souza, Instituto Biomob’s partner-director.
The families were selected from a cross-reference with other organizations working in the region, creating a map of 13 communities in Petrópolis and 3 of Rio’s Metro Area in which donations were not happening. “Instituto TIM has allowed us to perform this action repeatedly. That which started with an action that would last a month has reached five months. As the pandemic setting remains, these families were not unassisted”, Valmir states.
The campaign began in May, in São Paulo, where 9 communities took part – one of them being indigenous. Starting in July, with the onset of Instituto TIM support, the campaign was expanded to the state of Rio de Janeiro, with donations extending until the end of September. The basket includes 12 items: four of them are fresh (potatoes, carrots and two types of fruit: tangerines and apples or apples and bananas) and eight non-perishables (rice, beans, sugar, salt, oil, cornmeal and flour).
Mútua-Gesto Solidário campaign also relies on the support of the Petrópolis City Civil Guard, the Technology Park of Região Serrana (Serratec), and the Serra Verde Imperial Business Network (MercoSerra).
