A volunteer wearing a protective mask is pictured preparing one of 300,000 daily meals served to the needy in Paraguay's Ciudad del Este, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: CNS Fr Eckar Rolón does not expect his workload to evaporate October 15 when his small landlocked country, Paraguay, reopens its borders with neighbouring Argentina and Brazil after seven months.
Fr Rolón has coordinated a massive food programme in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay’s second-largest city, since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March and borders were closed, eliminating jobs and depriving the city of goods.
His city, along with Puerto Iguazú in Argentina and Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil, form a zone known as the Triple Frontier that survives on trade, including a huge amount of illegal goods. Smuggling used to be the number one concern along the Triple Frontier, attracting international attention, but pandemic-driven hunger has replaced it.
“Our biggest problem is hunger; we are helping feed people who have watched their livelihoods evaporate with the pandemic,” said Fr Rolón.