Portrait of the leaders of the South in the year of the pandemic

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Dozens of women around the world have been the protagonists of the information of Planeta Futuro / EL PAÍS since March 8, 2020, a year in which the covid-19 pandemic has turned the known reality upside down.

But they remained at the forefront of the fight against the disease and its consequences: health professionals, mothers, caregivers, cleaners, teachers.

Magdalena Sepúlveda, executive director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, reminded us of this in July 2020 in one of her stands of the Network of Experts “Women are on the front lines of the battle against the virus.

Globally, 88% of personal care workers and 69% of health professionals are women, who are at a much higher risk of getting sick ”.

More information

• Women: the year of a thousand plagues

• Dr. T's crucial mission: sexual health

• Six women from Kenya

Like Lydia Kuria, a nurse at a clinic in Kibera, Kenya, one of the

largest

slums

in East Africa, where hygiene and social distance measures are almost impossible due to lack of adequate water and sanitation, and overcrowded conditions .

Even when she did not have enough masks to avoid having to reuse the one she had, she went to the health center to care for those who fell ill or women who went into labor.

"Many pregnant women are giving birth at home, with the difficulties and problems that this has, because during curfew hours they are forbidden to go to the clinic," she explained by video call.

The organization she works for, Amref Salud África, and others that work in the area, managed to get the government to give them special permission so that their patients could come in an emergency.

"So we can prevent the most serious births from being affected."

Technology has facilitated that in the months of confinement, in which human contact was maintained through the screens, the reporters of this section have connected with the women of the world who, like Kuria, have fought against the worst consequences of the pandemic and the shortcomings that already existed before them: poverty, hunger, inequality, violence, the destruction of the planet ... Evils of which, in addition, they are the most affected.

“With the arrival of the coronavirus my life has changed.

Due to the new regulations, we do not even go out to the door of the house.

We are not going to school.

It has closed.

Before the illness came, I went to school ”.

The one speaking is Esta Sanoussi, a 15-year-old girl who lives in Maradi, Niger.

She is one of the teenagers who told us in a series of videos how they were experiencing the pandemic.

The interruption of their training is one of the constants that, in the case of girls, has the associated risk (and greater than among boys) of permanent abandonment, either because their parents prioritize the education of the boys in case of need, because they get married or get pregnant.

Many, such as 11-year-old Fatimata Bagayogo, from the Ivory Coast, have had the support of their parents to continue studying and have endeavored to learn on radio, television and even by phone messages.

"I want to be a doctor," explained the little girl, when photographed by Unicef.

It doesn't cost money, no one can tell me that because of the pandemic, you can't support women's leadership

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Director

The pandemic not only threatens to truncate the dreams of millions of girls, but also professional and sports careers.

This is the case of Gloria Guissou, the great Burkinabe karate champion, who doubted she could fulfill her goal of participating in the Olympic Games.

Because of covid-19, they will be held in 2021. "I'm not sure my husband can wait until then to have our first child, so this dream may not come true ...", she said last November.

Only with more women in power, from institutions to the most remote communities, will gender gaps be closed and sustainable and inclusive development possible.

So believes Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (65, South Africa), the director of UN Women, with whom we chatted in a choppy conversation - coverage stuff - in February 2021. “It doesn't cost money, no one can tell me that because of the pandemic, can not support the leadership of women, "he insisted.

More presidents, more ministers, more politicians, more mayors, more senior managers and heads.

A desire shared by Suzi Carla Barbosa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of one of the 10 poorest on the planet, Guinea Bissau, and an example of a leader raised in the heat of rural communities of African women.

“My commitment has always been to give a voice to women, especially rural women.

And to be a reference in politics for young women, so that they get involved and fight for their rights ”, he commented in an interview, taking advantage of his official visit to Spain in early 2021, which facilitated a face-to-face meeting, with due distance.

She is not a president or a politician.

But Melinda Gates is one of those women with power.

Send a lot.

She is a leader with enormous influence on the sustainable development of the planet, as co-director of the Gates Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the world.

In an interview with four European media, including EL PAÍS, he reflected on the changes that the pandemic will cause in the way we do things and the way in which we are going to rebuild the world.

And he predicted a leading role for the family and women.

“All the economies of the world are built on the backs of women who do unpaid work.

It does not matter if you are a European country, you are the United States, you are India, you are one from Africa ... ”.

According to his analysis, from now on we must think about how to ensure that we balance economies with the needs of families to have paid sick days, to be able to take care of children, the elderly ... “This pandemic has exposed things in our own homes that most people have not wanted to face.

And I think it will be up to us, as a global community, to learn the lesson. "

Like Melinda Gates, other leaders, but from below, have also made our headlines.

Because they have not hesitated to take charge of the care of their communities.

We have seen it in Valle del Sol, a settlement between the northern hills of the city of Lima (Peru).

There, households where bread did not enter, began to put white flags in their windows as a symbol that they needed help.

The women did not hesitate to come to the rescue and organized community pots, that is, they made food for everyone.

Also starring in Planeta Futuro, five migrants in Buenos Aires ―Ana, Juana, Andrea, Susana and Patricia― who arrived in Argentina from other countries and became an essential support to feed in solidarity the residents of the impoverished neighborhoods of the capital in this pandemic.

Five essential migrant women

In the year in which the planet has been pending of an infectious disease for which a vaccine was developed in record time, but there is still no cure, we recall in a special display that every 30 seconds a child under the age of five dies from of pneumonia, preventable and treatable in most cases.

Ridhima Pandey, 13, a leader in the fight against climate change in India, stressed in Barcelona shortly before the world came to a standstill that pollution is a factor that harms the health of children, seriously damaging their respiratory tract, among other consequences.

She is one of the exponents of a new generation of 'malalas' and 'gretas', young girls who have also raised their voices in this year of pandemic.

For the forests, for the rights of LGTBI people, for breathing clean air and drinking water.

They already stand out as the leaders that Mlambo-Ngcuka claims.

Those who fight, those who suffer, those who rule and those who need help, the women of the planet are honored today March 8, but they are ignored and invisible the rest of the year

Those who fight, those who suffer, those who rule and those who need help, the women of the planet are honored today, March 8, but they are ignored and invisible the rest of the year.

The British researcher Luba Kassova warned us: in 2019, less than 1% of the news dealt with issues related to gender inequality, according to her study on the presence of women in the media.

And 2020 was no different.

Their analysis of the information on the pandemic concluded that the news about it hides women.

They have been largely absent from the headlines and among the expert voices, as much or more as they have been from decision-making positions.

Milagros Ramos, 24, and her mother rebelled against the invisibility of women and turned the most popular outfit in this pandemic, the protective mask, into a feminist cry.

Their violet masks, painted with a traditionally masculine ancestral technique, illustrate this news.

From Lima, where they are made, they send a message: "You are not alone!"

International Women's Day is the time to highlight what goes almost unnoticed the rest of the year: that 200 million women live mutilated victims of cutting, that one in three has suffered some type of physical or sexual violence, that Even before the pandemic made things worse, every day 34,000 girls were forced to marry and 830 women died from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth.

That from January to October 2020 there were 2,384 femicides in Mexico and reporters like Frida Guerrera are risking it for denouncing it.

As long as it continues to happen, we will keep counting it.

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