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“If we don’t die from the virus, we will die from hunger”

We are a group of roma neighbors from Sevilla (Spain) who are very concerned about the consequences that the COVID-19 crisis is having on our neighborhoods: Polígono Sur, Torreblanca, El Vacie, San Rafael and Los Pinillos.

We have started this campaign to gain support to request an online meeting with our Mayor, Juan Espadas to express our concerns and solicit the following actions:

1. Receive economic support while we cannot practice our economic activity. 
2. Restructure social service management in order for families to access food.

We want to share our neighbors’ testimonies in which they reflect the extreme difficulties we are going through:

• We don't have money to feed our families. Social Services are collapsed, and the aid is not enough to cover the needs of all those affected. The food bags provided do not respond to the needs of a family. 
• There are no guarantees to protect us from the spread of the virus. The local businesses in the Polígono Sur are still not cleaned and in Torreblanca waste management takes away our fundamental belongings that we have in the street. We do not have space in our houses to store them especially while we are confined.
• Our sons and daughters cannot continue their schooling due to the lack of technological resources.
• The media is being discriminatory towards us. The press only covers isolated cases of neighbors that do not comply with confinement rules, while ignoring the fact that most of our neighbours strictly comply with them.
• The news that appears in the media ignores the efforts we make every day to provide for our families. This is skewing the images of our neighborhoods that does not reflect the reality of our communities.

With this request we want to emphasize our willingness to collaborate with the authorities in making the measures sensitive to the conditions and needs of the communities who suffer extreme conditions of vulnerability.

We have created a fundraising campaign through gofundme. This initiative seeks to finance advocacy actions carried out to dignify the life of our communities.

Sign to request the Seville City Council and our mayor, Juan Espadas, to meet with us electronically to expedite and prioritize emergency measures to dignify the life of the most impoverished communities in our municipality during the covid-19 crisis.