Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

FROM THE FIELD

Testimonies: How the downturn is hitting poor men and women
01 Apr 2009 17:21:00 GMT
 Source: Oxfam GB - UK
Website: Website: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/?p=4011

220803 logo
A migrant worker from Bangladesh sleeps on a makeshift bed in a temporary dormitory in Seri Alam near Johor Bahru, March 20, 2009. Malaysia plans to cancel some 55,000 visas for migrant labourers from Bangladesh, as the government attempts to mitigate job losses arising from the global economic downturn.
Previous | Next
A migrant worker from Bangladesh sleeps on a makeshift bed in a temporary dormitory in Seri Alam near Johor Bahru, March 20, 2009. Malaysia plans to cancel some 55,000 visas for migrant labourers from Bangladesh, as the government attempts to mitigate job losses arising from the global economic downturn.
REUTERS/Vivek Prakash
Here are a series of first person accounts from poor men and women affected by the global downturn. They were already vulnerable, and now the spreading secondary impacts of a crisis that started in the U.S. banking system - and which they had nothing to do with creating - are pushing them to the edge of survival.

Abdul Quddus, 40, a farmer and migrant worker who has returned to Bangladesh

Short, stocky and sunburnt, Abdul Quddus has an air of the indomitable farmer who refuses to give up on his crops despite floods and droughts.

Quddus decided to go to Dubai to seek labouring work, believing that it would be his ticket out of subsistence farming. Quddus staked all he had - and more - to afford the visa. He old his land, cattle and wife's jewellery. But that was not enough. So he borrowed another Tk 100,000 from a local money-lender at an annual interest of 120 per cent.

He lost his luggage on arrival in Dubai and missed the bus that was supposed to take him to his camp. He didn't find it or get compensation. "I did not bother with what I had lost, hoping that in three years I would earn a lot more and make up."

Less than a year after he arrived Quddus was rounded up with other Bangladeshis. "The company officials told us that we would be sent off because the construction was being suspended." He never got any compensation for the premature termination of his 3-year contract of employment.

During the 10 months that Quddus was in Sharjah, working at a construction site, he was able to pay back only Tk 25,000. "The money-lender would have held his patience if I were abroad since the loan would be paid off, sooner or later. Now that I am back, he knows full well that there is little chance of that happening. So he is pressuring me for the money every few days."

From a small farmer, he has been reduced to a landless, homeless near-refugee in his own village. He has no land, no home, no cattle. Quddus is now even more marginalised than he used to be. "I used to get by with what I had before I paid for that visa. Now my bare hands are all that I have left."

******

Yolanda Estela Aquino Rojas, 37, factory worker, El Salvador

"I am a single mum with three kids. I worked as a supervisor in the factory, and would have been working 10 years in February.

The factory closed in November. They still owe me two weeks salary. They also owe me my pension fund contributions. For two months they didn't give us the national insurance certificate. In October they gave as a fake certificate. It didn't have a stamp or the bars which an authentic one would have. They didn't see us in the National Health Insurance office because apparently we had not paid [our contributions] but it's not true - the payment was deducted from our salary.

We are already looking for work. Some tell us 'after the elections', others 'at the end of February' but we don't find anything. I have had some help from time to time from my father and sister and have also got some work doing washing and ironing - enough to survive.

I am only buying the necessities, with the help of my family. One of them gave me $5. Another gave me some shoes. I am renting where I live and I owe 4 moths' rent. I've never been in a situation like this before."

******

Binh, 24, worker on an industrial park, Vietnam

Binh sits in a corner of her bed that occupies almost half of the room, talking about how life has become harder for her. The economic crisis is having an impact here in the industrial park halfway between the centre of Ha Noi and its international airport.

Up to a few weeks ago, she had been sharing this tiny room with her younger sister. But recently, her sister was made redundant as well as thousands other workers working in more than 60 various companies' factories in the park.

Where Binh lives, the landlord has 10 rooms for rent that each used to be shared by two or three workers. Now there are only 3 rooms occupied. Binh is finding it difficult to find another roommate to share the cost as so many have left for their hometown since there are no jobs, there is no reason to stay. But the accommodation cost is not her only problem.

Without her sister here, she has to go even more sparingly on the market spending of vegetables and occasionally bought tofu. More than ever, she now relies upon the more nutritious meal provided once a day by the company.

Likewise, when both Binh and her sister were working, they could spare one million dong - about US$60 - (two thirds of her current salary) for another sibling who is studying in a college in Ha Noi. "Now I don't know how we can afford that".

The production of the whole factory has also been reduced immensely. Her workshop is the better one with six lines still running while the other two are down to one out of the usually seven or eight lines. If things get worse, she has thought that she would also return to her hometown in Thanh Hoa province, "still without money, but I know there is food".

******

Miners in Kenema and Kono districts, Sierra Leone

High operational costs in Sierra Leone's mines are compounding falling global demand for luxury goods such as diamonds, which historically has been the country's number one export. In regions such as Kenema and Kono the knock on effect on the local economy is significant.

Chief Shaka "Mugabe" Sandi, chairman of the Sierra Leone Indigenous Miners' Movement, said: "We've laid off all of our day labourers. I used to employ 20 men. Overall employment is down by more than 80 percent. There are empty houses around the town now.

"Everyone has gone back to the villages to farm, but it's impossible to make a living from farming. There's no credit to enable us to grow enough to have a decent business. Mining is a tough life but at least the salary helped people here to make a living."

Yusef Musa is an artisan miner: "Every year I have planted a small farm which my family looked after while I worked in the mine. This year I will have to work full-time in the farm but I can't afford to plant much. If you fail in school, or come from a village you come to the mines to try to earn money. Some people are going to the north to mine gold."




[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Politics of Aid

MORE >>

Members

•  Oxfam GB - UK

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Testimonies: How the downturn is hitting poor men and women
Oxfam GB - UK

•  G20: Global bank bailout is enough to end world poverty for 50 years
Oxfam GB - UK

•  Caritas Zimbabwe appeal short of funds
Caritas Internationalis

•  G20 must save lives as well as jobs: British Red Cross
Red Cross - UK

•  G20 must save lives as well as jobs: British Red Cross
Red Cross - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

•  MALAWI: Controversy over Madonna adoption

•  Bangladesh to stop militancy in Islamic schools

•  MYANMAR: Rohingya face rising food insecurity

•  YEMEN: Anger over delays in food distribution to flood victims

•  Japan to provide $5.1 bln in crisis aid to Asia -FT

MORE >>

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Background information

Topics
Politics of Aid
Facts & figures
Bangladesh El Salvador Sierra Leone Vietnam

Related articles

Breaking stories
 MALAWI: Controversy over Madonna adoption (1 minute ago)

Bangladesh to stop militancy in Islamic schools (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 G20 summit must not neglect poor nations - World Bank president (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 Testimonies: How the downturn is hitting poor men and women (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Beyond Darfur: agency expulsion raises concerns for neglected regions (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Asia Pacific: Impact of Rising Sea Levels on Small Islands (Feb 2009) (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-31T132705Z_01_DHA002_RTRIDSP_2_BANGLADESH-PROTEST_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/DHA002.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-31T132335Z_01_DHA001_RTRIDSP_2_BANGLADESH-PROTEST_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/DHA001.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-26T125909Z_01_CAI502_RTRIDSP_2_EGYPT_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/CAI502.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-21T232512Z_01_SLV04D_RTRIDSP_2_SALVADOR_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/SLV04D.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-13T141045Z_01_DHA019_RTRIDSP_2_BANGLADESH-FIRE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/DHA019.htm

Members of Students For A Free Tibet, Bangladesh light candles as they protest in front of the Chinese embassy in Dhaka March 31, 2009 marking 50 years since the failed uprising ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Wed Apr 1 17:27:47 2009