A starving 11-year-old girl’s cry for help has moved Brazil

A week ago, Celia Barrows’ fridge was pretty empty. Today, this Brazilian single mother doesn’t know where to store food from donations after her son called the police for help.

“Mr. officer, we don’t have anything to eat at home,” Miguel, 11, told the policeman who answered the emergency number last Tuesday.

Seven members of a family living in an attic in Santa Luzia, near Belo Horizonte (south-east), eat only corn flour dissolved in water and it has been three days.

The officer who received the call thought the home was a case of neglect and sent police to the scene.

But what they saw was an all-too-common scenario: a mother failing to feed her children as inflation eroded the purchasing power of the poorest in Latin America’s largest economy.

Police went to the supermarket to bring food to the family, some paid out of pocket and others provided by the business manager, who explained to them the cause in the neighborhood.

When the local press told this gripping story, the Barros family’s tragedy moved all of Brazil and donations began to flow.

What was previously a cramped kitchen without any food items has taken the form of a convenience store.

“We received a lot of food, a lot of different things, even foods that I didn’t even know about,” young Miguel told AFP, opening a full cupboard.

“Hunger hurts a lot”

Her mother Celia, 46, has eight children, six of whom she is raising alone today.

She survived through odd jobs, but she was idle during the Covid-19 crisis.

“We suffered a lot. Hunger hurts a lot, I will never forget those moments,” she sighed, holding a small baby, the youngest of her children, in her arms.

“For a while you didn’t even have the strength to get up. Miguel saw me disappointed and in tears and decided to act. Thank God it changed everything. “

The family’s plight has particular resonance in a country where hunger, virtually eradicated in the past decade, has once again become a major problem.

For the first time since 2014, Brazil reappeared on the UN’s “World Hunger Map” this year, with 28.9% of the population living in moderate “food insecurity” or severe conditions.

Scenes of starving people fighting over garbage dumps for bones have gone viral on social media.

In this painful situation, Celia is proud to be able to help neighbors in need to fill their refrigerators.

“We have received so many donations that now I, who have nothing, can help others,” she said.