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A shantytown visit led to a chance meeting between a marathon man and a toxic kitten pages 2 & 15

Many expats and numerous NGOs are working in shantytowns, such as this one in Villa Independencia, in the Buenos Aires province, district of San Martin.

TIM

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March 29, 2009

Slumcat millionaire

2 | COVER STORY | On SundayMarch 29, 2009

BY SORREL MOSELEY-WILLIAMS

Herald staff

An excursion to a shantytownmay not be the most pleasant ofoutings but the idea was to spendsome time in Villa Independencia,a slum located in Buenos Airesprovince in an area north of thewell-to-do area of San Isidro, andto learn more about the place andthe charity work that is carried outthere.

Fiona Ambrosi set up the TodosJuntos children’s organization in2006 to “improve the daily livingconditions of underprivileged chil-dren by supplying free restorativedental care,” and the trust also sup-ports a network of state-run soupkitchens with materials and equip-ment. The main project is calledSmile and provides dental care tochildren living in poverty who ob-viously suffer from malnutritionwho have almost zero possibility ofreceiving such care otherwise. Sheis in the process of constructing thethird Smile clinic at the moment.

As you read this article from thecomfort of an armchair, Tim Phillipsis participating in a seven-day, 250-km ultra-marathon in Chile’s Ata-cama desert and the money he rais-es in the endeavour will go to Fiona’scharity, the Argentina-based, UK-registered Fiona runs.

For Tim, a Brit who has lived inBuenos Aires City for almost threeyears with his family, this is an enor-mous physical and mental chal-lenge to raise money for charity, es-pecially at the ripe old age of 37.However, prior to committing, heunderstandably needed to checkout the Todos Juntos project and hewanted to know what his colleagueMatt Chesterton and myselfthought.

HEADING NORTHOn a cloudless day in February,

we meet Fiona at the Márquezbridge which crosses the Pan-Amer-ican motorway heading north out

of the capital and from there we’retaken by a private taxi driver,Martín, to Villa Independencia. Lo-cated in the General San Martín dis-trict, this is just one slum out of 53in this area and according to 2006government statistics, it has 37,000residents, of which an estimated 60percent are children.

Martín is from San Isidro andused to play soccer when he wasyounger with the shantytown kids.It feels slightly foolhardy to put my-self in his hands, after all, whoknows where we might end up. Buthe’s mates with the local boys andassures us that it’s absolutely fineto walk around the slum in the day-time if we are accompanied. But,he says, “it’s dangerous during theweekend. The kids don’t have anymoney to go out, to go dancing, sothey go to another villa and go thiev-ing instead.” I feel more secure inthe fact that it’s a Tuesday, and it’s

about 9.30 in the morning.Martín has no qualms about

weaving down bumpy water-loggedroads. A winding warren of pot-holed tarmac, it takes a good 20minutes to reach the slum. The pre-

vious few days’ downpours weremuch needed for the farmers andtheir parched lands across the

province, but such heavy rain con-verts the dirt tracks into a differentkind of Venice, not attractive in anyway. The residents’ mobility is hin-dered as they try to go about theirdaily business and I don’t even want

to contemplate what diseases mightbe lurking in the waters.

Our first port of call is the Euge-

nio Necochea Health Centre Num-ber 17 on the periphery of Villa In-dependencia. Stepping out of thetaxi, my immediate thoughts turnto my handbag. Fiona takes us into meet Laura, a dentist employedby the local council. The dentist’schair and equipment has been pro-vided by Todos Juntos and in thehot seat is 13-year-old Ninfa Raquel.Her chubby mother Leonida silent-ly takes up a corner next to the win-dow. Wearing flip flops, like I am, itstrikes me that her feet are terriblyclean, despite the muddy tracks shehas surely trudged down to makethe appointment.

“We moved here from Paraguayseveral months ago and we can’tget any medical care there. But Iheard we could get free treatmenthere, so that’s why we came,” saysLeonida.

Ninfa Raquel has big frightenedeyes and stumps for front teeth.Rotten almost to the gums, her out-of-control fizzy drink consumptionis responsible for these stumps ac-cording to Laura, and she is filingthe 13-year-old’s teeth down so theycan be capped. Laura gently tellsoff the youngster: “You’re not go-ing to drink that stuff any more, areyou?” Ninfa Raquel shakes her head.It’s her only available response be-cause her mouth is stuffed with

tools. Thanks to her non-tradition-al smile, she suffers from low es-teem and stopped going to schoolas the other children make fun ofher.

Fiona comments that fizzy drinksof the cheapest variety are a com-mon food substitute in shantytowns:it doesn’t cost a lot, sugar gives thekids energy and the bubbles fillsthem up. Then it rots their teethaway. The tools are removed andNinfa Raquel is totally unpreparedfor her close-up. I can barely lookinto her mouth to see the damagedone.

Joel Antonio, Leonida’s son, hangsaround the waiting room crammedwith women and babies. A year old-er, his smile also comes at a pricealthough he will also be beginningtreatment soon. Two teenagers, theirlives just beginning, but pitifullytheir teeth have taken an early re-tirement.

This Paraguayan family is typicalof what the most recent United Na-tions report on population high-lights: that “both migrants from theprovinces and neighbouring coun-tries pile into the city shantytownsin search of a better life.” Not justto find employment but also forhealth reasons, to give themselvesa future.

We leave the cheery number sev-en clinic and head for a second one,the José Pereyra Health Centre Num-ber 7, closer to the lung of Villa In-dependencia. Dental care comesunder the guise of extractions only,especially in the case of children, asthere is no funding for restoration.To my untrained eye, the chair ap-pears totally unusable. Expired med-icines line the shelves and patchesof damp add a surreally artistictouch to the ceiling.

SSttoorryy ccoonnttiinnuueess oonn ppaaggee 1155..

Slumcat millionaireHow a shantytown visit led to a chance meeting between a marathon man and a toxic kitten

The precarious housing with no kind of sewer system is the common denominator at Villa Independencia.

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The extreme poverty and abandonment of the area shows the lack of basic necessities that are suf-fered by the inhabitants of Villa Independencia.

The picture shows the terrible state of some of the children’s teeth. Many of them have never re-ceived any healthcare treatment.

DISTRICT FACTSSan Martín has 53 shantytowns.That’s one slum per square kmThose 53 form 10 per cent of all slumsin Greater Buenos Aires.60 per cent of residents in Villa In-dependencia are children.According to INDEC national statis-tics from March 2008, escalatingpoverty affects 11.3 milliple. An es-timated four million of those fall un-der the level of extreme poverty.

On Sunday | COVER STORY | 15March 29, 2009

continues from page 2

From here we are taken into thevilla’s heart, accompanied by Al-fredo Sánchez, one of the clinic’sdirectors. As we wander, neighboursstop what they are doing to greethim with a courteous “buen día.”That doesn’t happen in Palermo. Acuddle with a baby and a quick chatand we meet the street scavengerswho head into the capital everynight to collect cardboard and emp-ty bottles and pregnant youngwomen with missing front teeth.

DARK PEACE The shantytown is quiet. It comes

alive at night, a discotheque towhich the super poor have exclu-sive entry, and people are sleepingnow, explains Alfredo. Althoughsome residents are out and about,and the odd stereo blares cumbiamusic, there is an unexpectedpeace. Then we have to make a de-cision: whether to cross what must

win an award for the world’s mostprecarious, hole-ridden bridge. Tinykids trip trap across merrily, an oldlady lurches into a gap and almoststumbles. But it’s what lies underthis architectural disaster thatdraws sharp intakes of breath allround. An excuse of a river, its wa-ters are stuffed with rusting cars,bits of corrugated roof, anythingplastic, toys. Residents live rightnext to this infested, infected wa-tery dumping ground, and becausethere is barely any sanitation andmost homes don’t have a toilet orbathroom, residents depend on thisriver. A baseball-capped manlunges through the water, keenlysearching for something. In mymind I yell at him to get out, thathe’ll catch more than just a coldfrom the disgusting water.

With regards to waste manage-ment, the UN report says that this“illegal dumping in open spaces isoverwhelming, leaving the areawith the typical deprived appear-ance that comes with the generaldirt and neglect seen in shanty-towns. Mountains of rubbish pile

up on unauthorized dumps con-stituting a permanent risk of in-fection. Public utilities such as elec-tricity, running water and sewageare not always existent. Unsanitaryliving conditions and a lack of wastemanagement prevails as in all thepoverty stricken areas of SanMartín.” But the worst is yet tocome.

Gingerly, one at a time, we cross.God forbid it should buckle underour collective weight. Fiona wantsto show us another clinic which isbarely a shack with a tin roof. Plen-ty of mothers have got word thatfree injections are being doled outtoday, and there are a lot of un-happy toddlers bawling inside thesardine can of a clinic.

Matt finds the nurses’ workingconditions staggering. “Getting upeach morning and going to somehellhole to treat toothless pregnant15-year-olds, and doing it for years,and never getting any real recog-nition for it — well, I doff my hat

to those people,” he says.The heat is intense, inside and

out. Whatever activities residentsparticipate in — robbing, shopping,visiting friends, collecting rubbish— no wonder they do it at night.There are no air currents and Ihaven’t felt this stifled all summer.

The heat is intense, inside andout. Whatever activities residentsparticipate in — robbing, shopping,visiting friends, collecting rubbish— no wonder they do it at night.There are no air currents and Ihaven’t felt this stifled all summer.

As we slowly make our way to seethe latest one-room clinic underconstruction, we pass another high-ly toxic fluorescent green river brim-ming with shopping trolleys, bot-tles, cars, metal, nappies, excre-ment, everything and anything.Toxic shock syndrome may be atampon-related disease but in Vil-la Independencia its very namecould easily be transmitted by airas we stand next to this glowing nu-clear fallout site.

Atop one section of river, a termI continue to use loosely, a house

has been built. Its innovative yet ig-norant owners have filled it in tocreate a new plot, and have con-structed their brick-and-mortarabode above the rotting toxic wa-ter. Treading on the new earth, itfeels like quick sand as our collec-tive weight sinks down a few inch-es. For how long will this home last?And how long until the toxic fumesovercome its owners?

A tiny grubby girl comes to takea look at us, and trailing behind heris a tiny grubby black-and-whitekitten. Sturdy, with strong little legs,it approaches me and I kneel downto pet it. “Es tuyo?” I ask Grubby.“No, no es mío,” she replies. Samequestion, but to a pair ofcanoodling teenagers. Same an-swer. “It doesn’t belong to anyone.It came out of the water,” offers upthe girl, pointing to the glowing nu-clear fallout site.

Next to whatever else the watershold, a bag of dead kittens is theleast of my contamination worries

but it is astounding to think this lit-tle thing somehow managed tocrawl out. As the midday sunstrengthens, beating onto my head,Tiny jogs along next to us, eventurning a corner when we do. Timdoesn’t think his wife Vic would beterribly happy if he brought homea child to adopt, but she might bemore accepting of a kitten.

Reflecting on the day’s sights,Matt says: “I wasn’t shocked by thepoverty and the place was prettymuch how I expected it to be. Butthe stagnant, green gloopy streamswere awful and the sheer impossi-bility of waste disposal was de-pressing.”

And Tim, who is reminded byFiona throughout the visit that hesimply has to complete the 250-kmultra-marathon so that Todos Jun-tos can continue to with its proj-ects, says: “I’ve been very movedby this trip. The conditions areworse than I’ve seen in many LatinAmerican countries I’ve visited, andthe villas are so invisible in my dai-ly life in Buenos Aires, which madeit all the more surprising.”

The slumcat millionaire, the ro-bust black-and-white kitten whocrawled out of the water, now re-sides in a spacious apartment in

Palermo Viejo with Tim and fam-ily. Obviously Pinguino, who is fe-male, suffers from every skin dis-order known to cats and vets (I stillhave a ring of contagious shameon my arm a month after I firstpicked her up for a cuddle), butthat is the luckiest cat alive and sheknows it.

Slumcat millionaireA shantytown visit led to a chance meeting between a marathon man and a toxic kitten

A picture that says more than a thousand words.

Some of the children that make up a large amount of Villa Independencia’s numerous population.

Tim and kitten, a chance encounter.

HOW TO DONATE

Tim Phillips has a UK-based website to whichhe can receive dona-tions. As well as raisingmoney for Todos Juntos,he is also donating mon-ey to a Colombia-basedchar ity Fr iends ofColombia, a UK charitywhich donates equip-ment bought throughfunds to an orphanagethat provides shelter andfood to street-childrenin Bogota.

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CrimeKidnappings Drug abuse among minors

(mainly glue sniffing ) Armed drug gangs Malnutrition Lack of hygiene Lack of waste removal Illegal dumping Unemployment Leptospirosis