By Suzanne A. Marshall on the July 2020 Edition
Who would have thought six months ago that the world would be frozen in the grasps of a global viral pandemic? It has been a century since such an event occurred. However, this time, the world contains almost 6 billion additional people. We fly around the world with ease (making transition so much faster) and have come to count on a ‘global economy’ to meet our daily living requirements. At least requirements as we now see them.
Countries are no longer ‘self contained’ and exchange goods and services as an ordinary expectation. This may be an altered ‘vehicle’ in future as we cope with living in far more isolation and wait for some sort of new normal to evolve. And, of course, we all pray for a new vaccine to stop the spread of the virus. In the meantime, governments, scientists and the people try to cope with and avoid the ravages of Covid-19.
In Manzanillo, our beautiful beaches have been closed for months, along with many other public venues such as theatres, some shopping centres and numerous businesses. All of this is having a tremendous impact on the working lives of local Mexican families.
Many are relying on the tourism business for example, beach restaurants, and sales of various products where most of these families earn their daily living. In other words, the people live and support their families from day to day. When this suddenly stops, there is almost an immediate crisis. It is said that, in Mexico, the population of the working poor is 60%.
So, thanks to a couple of initiatives involving big hearted leaders and volunteers, there has been a focus on collecting food and funds for food purchases and subsequent distribution to numerous families who are currently in need.
One such group calls itself ‘Giving Without Strings’. This is the initiative of Benny and Grace McCormick who, with the help of volunteers (Ing, Steve, Fernando, Kevin and Camilla), are helping to relieve some of the daily stress experienced by many people in urgent need of sustenance.
I would like to acknowledge here that it took some convincing on my part to be allowed to identify the McCormicks for this article. They are not looking for notoriety.
As I told them, the more people that know who is involved, the better. This will hopefully enable like minded individuals the ability to donate or assist in this wonderful cause.
Once the purchases have been made, and donations have been sorted, they are loaded into vehicles and delivered to homes in the Pedro Nuñez, Las Flores and Santiago areas. The group has been trying to maintain weekly deliveries and hopes to do so as long as the need is there. What a tremendous effort this is to support the local communities.
Another group, lead by Jim and Bev Woods, is establishing a ‘not-for-profit’ organization to help now and to continue assisting many of our locals in the future. It’s important to note that, while some people are donating actual food (beans, rice, milk, flour, sauces ,etc.), others are donating cash so that volunteers can purchase many of the needed items in bulk from our local stores. Cash donations are coming in locally but are also being transmitted from outside Mexico from the USA and Canada.
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Suzanne A. Marshall hails from western Canada and has been living the good life in Manzanillo over the past 8 years. She is a wife, mom and grandma. She is retired from executive business management where her writing skills focused on bureaucratic policy, marketing and business newsletters. Now she shares the fun and joy of writing about everyday life experiences in beautiful Manzanillo, Mexico, the country, its people, the places and the events.
