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Sister Maru Cornejo sscc is a nurse and a missionary in Boane in the south of Mozambique. She works in rural areas in prevention and health promotion with a large and vulnerable population that is very immune-compromised and hit by diseases such as AIDS or tuberculosis, as well as the scourge of hunger. Maru is concerned that COVID-19 could come into the country in a big way with devastating effects. Accordingly there has been a lot of time and energy going into prevention work. In fact, at present the number of infections is just over 60 and no one has died.
In an interview with the weekly “ lfa y Omega” Maru comments: "The fact that it has reached the richest countries first has given us an advantage in the area of prevention. We've understand that seeing it taking place there means we have to avoid it happening here”. Right now, people are living the situation between tranquility and uncertainty, knowing that the most they can do is "work on prevention". Maru notes how the government of the country is being very strict regarding controlling of movement, especially people coming in from South Africa - which is one of the countries that has more infections.
Maru acknowledges, however, that although preventive measures are being strengthened, it is very difficult to talk about confinement in Boane because “people do not have the right conditions to store food". "People get up in the morning to eat that day. How do you tell the mother not to go out to sell or buy?”
As was stated earlier what worries Maru most is COVID-19 arriving with the same virulence as it did in Europe. "For us, the coronavirus would be an added problem, another problem. We live in a context of an epidemic every day, for example, with AIDS, which affects a quarter of the population in the area. How many people die from malaria or from not having anything to eat. When you ask, they say, "I'm not going to die of the bug, but I'm going to die of hunger. The coronavirus may be temporary, but we are here every day,” she explains. Mozambicans are "amazed” that a rich, developed Europe is suffering from this crisis in such an intense way: "They thought these things only happened to them and not to white people, who have money.
05/01/2020