Sin hambre
It is a non-profit civil association, promoted by volunteers from both sides of the border.
Our efforts began during the pandemic. Seeing how our city was hit by a hunger crisis and unemployment, we realized that through food we can make a big change.
Our greatest achievement has been to position ourselves, in less than three years, as a leading foundation against hunger and food insecurity.
We Mexicans are a very sensitive society. Have you noticed as always that where is a national crisis, the Mexican people unite? Let's not go so far back, let's go to the earthquake in Mexico in 2017, it trembled very strongly, approximately 4,000 Mexicans were left homeless, more than 400 dead, dramatic images that we saw on the news. As Arturo Aramburu said, human chains between people helping each other to remove debris, take people out, pets, even sing cielito lindo. When Mexico fell in 2017, the Mexicans were in charge of raising it.
What I wonder is: Why wait for a catastrophe to happen to unite as a society and help those most in need? Why wait for a pandemic to happen for society to enter into crisis? What would happen if there is no food tomorrow? What is a family man capable of in order to feed his children? Did you know that 4 out of 8 people living in extreme poverty in Baja California do not know what they are going to eat tomorrow? Or even worse, they don't know if they are going to eat tomorrow or not.
My name is Maru Rique, founder of FUNDACION BINACIONAL TIJUANA SIN HAMBRE, a non-profit organization currently promoted by 1,200 volunteers, which was literally born in the kitchen of my house in April 2020. It started as a small, local project, and to this day It has grown so large and things have gotten so out of hand that here I am telling our story. Our goal is to feed vulnerable communities, and be part of the fight to end hunger in our city. We currently operate a kitchen where 2,000 meals are cooked and distributed daily to vulnerable communities.
Let's go back to April 2020, we confined ourselves in quarantine, first we thought it would be 2 weeks, then 40 days, and when we least realized it we had been there for 3 months. Uncertainty was growing, and our city was on the brink of collapse. Small businesses were closing, businesses such as: schools, cinemas, restaurants, from family businesses to industrial parks, there were massive layoffs, assets that were lost in the blink of an eye... and while all this was happening, the pandemic advanced and every day it took the lives of more people.
What was I doing at that moment? The first thing: take care of my family, that they be well, and then see how to deal with this crisis. WhatsApp groups began to be created, through social networks, to support the people most in need during the pandemic. There were groups where they helped people with medical equipment, the famous oxygen tanks that cost so much work to get. There were groups where you could find nurses, doctors, medicines. It was when I realized that Mexicans in times of crisis are a supportive society like no other in the world.
WE ALL HAVE A MOMENT IN LIFE WHERE WE FEEL A CALLING.
The pandemic for me represents a violent mental impact on my life by doing something as simple as opening my pantry. I realized that before I complained about coming home and saying "there's nothing to eat" but the refrigerator was full. Now I KNOW what it's like to have nothing to eat. I have entered hundreds of houses, where the whole family shares an apple, 1 apple for everyone.
And here I want to tell you this. The best decision is not always what everyone else does, for me, the easiest, the most comfortable, would have been to sit and watch Netflix all day, to wait for the quarantine to be lifted while our Tijuana was suffering one of the worst crises. According to the Bank of Mexico, the pandemic led our country to the highest level of poverty in the century. So seeing all that, and seeing that we were one of the lucky ones who could stay in a sofa, that's when we said "we have to do something."
And that was when I met THE LOVE IN ACTION.
We began to summon our friends to join a chain of help for those who lived from hand to mouth, and who, without work, could not stay at home, much less feed their children. The plan was that anyone showing you their positive COVID test, we would support them with a 20-kilo pantry that should last them for 1 month. The pantry brought everything necessary for a whole family to be locked up at home and not have to go out, sick, to look for food. Did we want to avoid a social problem, because here I ask you again, what is a father of a family capable of in order to feed his children?
We went from community to community and saw how the children fought over a piece of bread. For a can of tuna.
We entered communities where there were elderly people, which in itself is difficult to give them an opportunity to work, now imagine an 80-year-old person, living alone, facing a pandemic, terrified. It was the worst case scenario for her. WE HAVE TO LIVE IN A WAR THAT WAS NOT FIGHTED WITH WEAPONS BUT WITH FAITH. And with faith, we managed to mobilize the entire city.
This all went down quickly in a couple of weeks. But ANY CHALLENGE IS EASY WHEN THERE IS GOOD WILL. We started in April, and in one month we already had more than 200 volunteers. IT WAS ALL CRAZY, BUT WE BELIEVED WE COULD DO IT AND WE CAME TOGETHER.
FOR ME IT IS ALWAYS IMPORTANT TO STAND UP WITH A PURPOSE AND TODAY FOR ME IT IS AN HONOR AND A PRIVILEGE TO BE ABLE TO HELP PEOPLE WHEN THEY ARE PROBABLY IN THE WORST MOMENT OF THEIR LIFE.
God knows how and where to accommodate people who do good. And so it has been in our history.
Today we all have the opportunity to make a difference. Today all of us, leaders like you who have had the opportunity to study and be better, we are the ones who can make a difference to change the world.
In a moment of crisis, Mexican society is put to the test and Tijuana passed the test with Tijuana Sin Hambre.
