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Added on the 31/03/2020 14:49:16 - Copyright : France 24 EN
Lisbon, Sep 18 (EFE), (Camera: Paula Fernández).- The pandemic has not only caused infections and deaths in Portugal but it has also lead to poverty. Thousands of workers with stable jobs who overnight they stopped earning money and now have to turn to charity to survive.According to data from the Portuguese Institute for Employment and Vocational Training, in July there were 407,000 people registered in the unemployment centres, 37% more than a year ago, although the figure is highly questioned by economists, unions and politicians who point out that the real unemployment rate is even higher.FOOTAGE OF FOOD BANK IN LISBON AND FAMOES PARISH IN ODIVELAS. SOUNDBITES OF:-ISABEL JONET, PRESIDENT OF THE PORTUGUESE FEDERATION OF FOOD BANKS: "In two months we received more than 60,000 people asking for help. It is a huge increase, incredibly huge. It happened overnight. We started to receive requests and more requests. There were days when we received 2,000 help requests. It was very distressing because we did not see that entities were able to respond to all these people.""They are people who had never experienced poverty and suddenly, from one moment to another, they were left with nothing. They had no money, not even a euro because they had nowhere to work. Their workplaces were closed. For example, we are talking about hairdressers, personal trainers, physical therapists, dentists, beauticians, domestic workers, street vendors, taxi drivers, Uber drivers ... "."A fifth of the population lives in a situation of poverty. This kind of poverty was traditionally more linked to age, people with low retirement pensions. A set of measures was implemented, such as the solidarity supplement for the elderly or the increase in lower pensions, but we still have people with pensions below 180 euros a month."-SOFIA MARTINS, COORDINATOR OF THE FOOD BANK AT THE FAMOES PARISH COMMUNITY CENTRE:"Before the pandemic, until March, the food bank helped 48 families from Pontinha and Famões. Nowadays, in August, they are about 140 families. There was a fairly significant increase due to the pandemic."-PAULO PINHEIRO, DIRECTOR OF THE FAMOES PARISH COMMUNITY CENTRE:"Poverty is not only visible, but it is always a kind of iceberg. There is a type of poverty outside, visible, and people take the initiative and turn to help. But there is also a group of families to whom it is very difficult to help because it is ashamed poverty, they are not used to it or they do not want to say publicly that they are overcoming (financial) difficulties."-ANA PAULA, NEIGHBOUR WHO HAS TURNED TO THE FOOD BANK:"My husband and my baby tested positive and I had to stay at home to take care of them. I was laid-off at work and during the pandemic, I could not leave home since I had to self-isolate after tested positive. I sought help by calling the City Council and the community centre."
La Habra, Jun 10 (EFE/EPA).- Food supply workers and representatives from US labor union Teamsters on Wednesday staged a national protest with demonstrations planned in almost 30 cities across the US to demand more safety measures and better health protection following thousands of deaths in their industry during the pandemic(Camera: EUGENE GARCIA)SHOTLIST: UNION MEMBERS PROTESTING OUTSIDE THE CVS DISTRIBUTION CENTER IN LA HABRA, CALIFORNIA, US.
French retail giant Carrefour has started putting stickers on products that have shrunk in size but cost the same or even more to warn customers against "shrinkflation" - ahead of new contract talks that are set to begin soon. This as the government is planning to temporarily lift a ban on retailers selling fuels at below-cost, to help households struggling to cope with stubbornly high inflation.
‘We've never seen anything like it,’ says a French farmer who has lost half of his harvest due to weather extremes.
In the midst of the energy crisis gripping France, this farmer is using his land in innovative ways to produce electricity.
A number of London police have stepped back from firearms duties after a fellow officer was charged with murder over the fatal shooting of a young black man, a force spokesman said Sunday. Police in Britain are not routinely armed and the small proportion who are authorised to carry guns are highly trained.
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