More than half of the inhabitants of rio's city of God were unemployed during the epidemic, and the extreme poverty population jumped to 20%

According to a survey recently conducted by Construindo juntos, a Brazilian non-governmental investigative agency, and Tufts University in Massachusetts, more than 50% of residents of Cidade de Deus, a western community in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have lost their jobs under the covid-19 pandemic. Extreme poverty has surged from 12 percent to 20 percent in one year.

Brazilian website "G1" reported on May 11 that the purpose of conducting the survey was to assess the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the City of God. The study lasted seven months, was conducted online, and about 600 people answered questionnaires.

According to the survey results, the unemployment rate in the City of God, one of rio's largest communities, has reached 54% of the resident population. Anjuli Fahlberg, a researcher at Tufts University and an associate professor of sociology, said 59 percent said the biggest impact was on lack of job opportunities and falling incomes.

"When you're in a state where you don't know if you'll be able to feed your family the next day, you don't even have a chance to cry for those who die, you don't have a way to make plans for your children's education because you're under this direct pressure." And we know very well that direct and long-term stress can cause many mental problems and cognitive difficulties, which can also affect children. He said.

In addition, the proportion of residents living in extreme poverty in God's City rose from 12 percent in March last year to 20 percent in March this year. The per capita household income of this group is below 81 reais. The proportion of the population with no income at all rose from 4 per cent to 9 per cent.

Fewer people have money in their hands and fewer people spending in their communities. Professor Anjuli explains: "People with formal jobs spend in the community. He would buy a piece of pizza, he would pay a friend to fix the car, he would go to the local supermarket, he would go to the barbershop. And all of this (losing formal jobs) has also contributed to a decline in the incomes of those who work informally. So we need to see not only a reduction in formal jobs, but also a reduction in the income of people living on the local informal economy. ”

When it comes to the help they received during the pandemic, only 3 percent of respondents claimed to have received assistance from the federal government in addition to emergency assistance, 18 percent said they had received help from church and religious groups, 18 percent said they had received help from friends or relatives, and 46 percent said they had received help from NGOs and social groups.

(Editor: Xiao Dongdong)