The state administration of the MST in Pernambuco made the structure of the Paulo Freire Training Center available in Caruaru to the State Government, to serve as a field hospital for patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The decision was formalised in a letter on Monday (March 30) and is a reinforcement for SUS [Brazil’s public health service] to account for the number of patients infected in this pandemic in the state.
The centre has more than 50 rooms in the accommodation sector, 6 classrooms and an auditorium with a capacity for 800 people. It is located in the Normandy Settlement, in the countryside of the State, and is used by the movement with popular education, training of teachers and coordinators
The action is part of the Hands of Solidarity campaign, of the Brazil Popular Front, also launched this Monday. The campaign consists of several tasks, such as distributing lunchboxes to the homeless, manufacturing handmade masks, distributing basic baskets to campers and communities in the periphery at risk.
In addition, the state directorate of the MST has guided its bases here in the state to maintain the production of healthy food and homemade and handmade medicines, such as tinctures, teas, syrups to improve immunity, in addition to guiding all settlements to organize and produce gardens medicinal products, organic products, especially for the production and consumption of the family itself
The family and collective agribusiness units are developing techniques for the conservation and storage of agricultural products, in order to guarantee the supply of healthy food to cities.
The agents and doctors of the MST health sector are also accompanying the families of the settlements and camps in the measures to prevent coronavirus, in particular the houses where people at risk range, the elderly, newborns and the sick live.
Solidarity: food from settlements for poor neighborhoods and homeless people
A task force took food produced in settlements and encampments to the outskirts of Goiânia. This has occurred in other regions of the country, such as Recife, where since March 24, homeless people have been given lunch boxes.
The action in the northwest region of the capital of Goiás was organized by the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), alongside the Popular Youth Uprising, Quilombo Collective and the People’s Congress Brigade. Also coming from the Santa Dica dos Sertões Agroecological Training and Production Center, beans, zucchini, pumpkin, okra, eggplant, banana, cassava, almond, chives, free-range eggs and honey were distributed to the population.
In Recife, Armazém do Campo, on the banks of the Capibaribe River, has become a center of solidarity. Every day, the surrounding street population receives lunch boxes, in a joint action between the MST and the Archdiocese of Olinda and Recife.
Also Read: FMST Webinar: Social Movements’ Analysis and Responses to COVID-19 crisis
