The Minister of Education of Peru has ordered all public schools to close for two and a half weeks starting from today, July 15th. Private schools are strongly recommended to do the same. The order is a preventive measure to impede the spread of the swine flu. Up to now, 75 % of those who are down with the flu in Peru are under 18-year-olds. In Cajamarca there have been 7 confirmed cases so far, and the swine flu has become a cause célèbre and the most popular topic for small talk.
There has been talk that the closing of schools is a political manoeuvre by which the government seeks to calm down the protests and demonstrations against the ongoing conflict in the Amazon. Provoking panic is an excellent way of keeping people in line. One way or the other, the swine flu is a real threat, and I hope Peru is able to prevent it from spreading further. I must admit, though, that I am not really doing my share: instead of staying at home and avoiding public places during the two-week holiday I plan to travel to Ecuador.
Up till yesterday I didn’t think much of the swine flu; there seemed to be hoards of more serious and acute problems in Peru. A couple of weeks back I calculated that the number of under 5-year-old children who had died of cold in the past two months in the departments of Cusco and Puno was higher than the total number of deaths due to the swine flu. Yesterday, however, Zoila, a colleague of mine, said that several children up in Sexemayo had symptoms of the swine flu already. Their families cannot afford to pay 20 soles (5 €) for a doctor’s appointment, so they have no choice but to hope for the best. That was when I realized that the swine flu really is one of the serious problems facing the poor.
I am not the least bit worried for myself; I am strong and healthy and hardly ever even catch a common flu. Besides, I have travel insurance that should cover all my medical expenses, so if I do fall ill, I can afford the best care Peruvian hospitals have to offer. What worries me are the poor children Warmayllu works with. One in every three under-five-year-olds is undernourished in the Department of Cajamarca. Their resistance to any illness is bound to be low, and they may not be able to seek medical attention. Before leaving Cushunga yesterday, I told my students to take good care of themselves, wash their hands frequently with soap, and go see a doctor right away if they run a fever or get other symptoms. They listened through my pieces of advice before pointing out that “the doctor won’t see us”. I am growing more and more aware of how priceless social security actually is. We Finns don’t know just how lucky we are.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Dreadful news
I found out yesterday that one of my secondary school students committed suicide last week. I’m shocked, to say the least, and would like to cry, but my eyes are dry of tears. The poor girl (let us call her María) poisoned herself at the age of 15, with her whole life ahead of her. She was one of the very few female students I had, so I remember her well. I still cannot believe I will never see her again, it all feels so surreal.
María killed herself on Tuesday evening, and she attended English classes the same morning. I still remember her face when I gave back exams. Her grade was not particularly good, but she passed. I smiled at her when handing out the exam paper and said “Well done, congratulations”. Her face lit up and she smiled back. I had no idea María was feeling so bad; she had friends at school and looked happy enough.
Rumour has it that María had been tricked into leaving for Lima during the summer holidays (i.e. in February). She had been promised work there, but the job offer turned out to be a hoax. Instead, María was raped and got pregnant. Now, four to five months later, she decided to take her life, possibly to avoid the shame of having a baby born out of wedlock. Abortion is illegal in Peru, and clandestine abortions are too expensive for the poor. Now that I think of it, María did look chubbier than the other girls, but never suspected she was four or five months pregnant.
During the academic year 2006-07 I worked as a global educator for Taksvärkki ry, going from school to school to inform youngsters about the annual Taksvärkki campaign. That year, the money collected went to a development project in Guatemala the aim of which was to prevent the sexual abuse of children and teenagers. At all the schools I visited, the example I used to illustrate the problem was that young girls are persuaded to move away from their communities to a big city and instead of the promised nice jobs in the service branch they are forced to become prostitutes. That is the typical story, and it makes me so angry to think that that was exactly what happened to María. The Taksvärkki project seeks to inform young people about such dangers, and I wish there had been a similar project in rural Cajamarca.
María killed herself on Tuesday evening, and she attended English classes the same morning. I still remember her face when I gave back exams. Her grade was not particularly good, but she passed. I smiled at her when handing out the exam paper and said “Well done, congratulations”. Her face lit up and she smiled back. I had no idea María was feeling so bad; she had friends at school and looked happy enough.
Rumour has it that María had been tricked into leaving for Lima during the summer holidays (i.e. in February). She had been promised work there, but the job offer turned out to be a hoax. Instead, María was raped and got pregnant. Now, four to five months later, she decided to take her life, possibly to avoid the shame of having a baby born out of wedlock. Abortion is illegal in Peru, and clandestine abortions are too expensive for the poor. Now that I think of it, María did look chubbier than the other girls, but never suspected she was four or five months pregnant.
During the academic year 2006-07 I worked as a global educator for Taksvärkki ry, going from school to school to inform youngsters about the annual Taksvärkki campaign. That year, the money collected went to a development project in Guatemala the aim of which was to prevent the sexual abuse of children and teenagers. At all the schools I visited, the example I used to illustrate the problem was that young girls are persuaded to move away from their communities to a big city and instead of the promised nice jobs in the service branch they are forced to become prostitutes. That is the typical story, and it makes me so angry to think that that was exactly what happened to María. The Taksvärkki project seeks to inform young people about such dangers, and I wish there had been a similar project in rural Cajamarca.
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