Caroline

My name is Caroline and I am a foreign-born resident of Guatemala City with an advanced university degree. I am living comfortably in my own home within the city suburbs. Since mid March, schools have been closed and distance learning modalities have been set in place as well as hybrid mode school opening by dividing student population by schools days. As in the case of our housekeeper’s family, those families with sufficient economic means have bought computers and contracted internet services in order to allow their children to continue studying.“Guatemala has huge income differences and about 60% live in poverty. Tens of thousands of children have dropped out of school in the country since March due to lack of access to internet/computers.” I have a car that I use to move around the city but the public transportation services which are city buses have stopped since March and as of now, they have not restarted.“The public transportation system is used by the lower classes only it is dangerous [as] armed assaults [occur] inside the busses, and youth gangs [target] bus drivers for extortion money—in past years hundreds have been killed for refusing to pay.” Recently, before Covid, I have noticed a rise in motorcycles as a means of transportations due to their accessible price. The pandemic totally changed the way we could work and the ways in which we went on with our routines. I started working from home but my husband is a judge and since the judiciary closed, he was subsequently suspended for over three months. “Entrance by non-residents to many highland indigenous communities was prohibited and boat traffic (which serves as public transportation for lakeside communities) was stopped. Health and other essential workers had to carry special permits to mobilize.” The national government focused on providing aid to vulnerable community members through ten governmental aid programs. However, “the aid programs were poorly planned and poorly executed due to inefficient government institutions and corruption” and “society created a popular hashtag #dondeestaeldinero (#whereisthemoney).” Testing in Guatemala City is not widespread due to the high cost of Q3,000 ($383.79 USD) for a test and and another Q300 ($38.38 USD) for an antibody test.
“Women are and will be strongly affected due to increased workload (professional and domestic). Domestic violence has sharply increased and sexual abuse of children has hit the roof (about 65,000 girls under 15 pregnant due to sexual abuse since start of the pandemic).”