Public Project
resilience: a family of nurses in caracas' COVID-19 lockdown
"7:00 a.m., Guarenas
Her apartment vibrates with the bellow of familiar sounds: kids laughing, coffee heating up on the stove, sisters venting as they get ready to face the day, grunts of their husbands making multiple trips up and down the stairs for water. Julieth, 23, is from Guarenas-Guatire, in Miranda State. Due to the quarantine, her working shifts have gone from 48 hours to six days at a time, so she packs her bag, kisses her husband and baby boy goodbye, and heads out to wait for a bus. As she leaves, the laughter of her son and his cousins carries out into the hallway..."This is the opening text for a story, images and words by me, picked up by Caracas Chronicles. To read the full story, see here.
During a militarized COVID-19 lockdown, many have found themselves without work. For Julieth and her family, all working in the healthcare industry, they continue to work under difficult conditions: longer shifts, a lack of PPE, militarized checkpoints and a continuing socio-economic crisis that has been going on in Venezuela for years. This story focuses on the strength of Venezuelan women who, in this family, always find a way. As Iraida, Julieth's mother in law, said:
"You have to produce miracles to live here. The money doesn't last and anything can get you down at any point. People really do make miracles here, just to get by."
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