Profile: “I haven’t studied anything for a year. I stay home cleaning and cooking”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Stephany Rejani’s current routine is quite different from what it was a year ago. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, this 20 year-old São Paulo native with a teenage face used to combine high school classes with housework.

But since the São Paulo state government closed public schools, she has completely dropped her studies to dedicate herself exclusively to the home. “I haven’t studied anything for a year. I stay home all day cleaning and cooking. While my mother works, I take care of my 12 year old brother and my 3 year old son,” says Rejani, who lives in Jardim Lapena, a suburb of São Paulo’s East Zone. The health crisis has pushed her to fulfill a role which has historically fallen on women: that of housewife.

Rejani is not alone. Like her, thousands of poor girls and teenagers from the outskirts of Brazil were forced to abandon their studies, and their dreams, to dedicate themselves to housework during the pandemic. NGO Plan International Brazil, which has programs focused on the rights of children, conducted a survey with 98 girls who participate in one of its projects. “A total of 98% of them are doing some domestic work at home. Before the pandemic, it was 57%,” says Nicole Campos, the organization’s Program Strategy Manager.

UNEAFRO, a social movement focused on the education of young blacks and youths from the peripheries, offers classes in a free pre-university course, which serves to complement the often precarious high school education in public schools. “Adolescent women are the most interested and committed to these activities. They have always been more present than men,” says Arlene Ramos, coordinator of the group’s Digital Nucleus.

This nucleus was born during the pandemic given the need to maintain classes at a distance. Ramos defines the initiative as “setting up an airplane while it’s flying.” But the group was not limited to giving online math or chemistry classes.

Throughout 2020, the need to hold discussion sessions via videoconference as a way to get closer to students became clear. During these meetings, topics such as feminism and mental health were addressed. “And housework has become too intensified and is one of the main obstacles to keeping up with classes and academic performance, especially for girls. They are confined at home, and the household demands become more visible,” explains Ramos.

This reality often occurs naturally, given that domestic activities are historically not considered work. “When we ask our students who works and for how many hours, the people with household chores answer that they don’t work. They are cooking, fulfilling adult obligations, taking care of their siblings, but they don’t perceive that as a job.”

If for students in private schools distance learning is now a reality, in public centers – frequented by the vast majority of these youths – its implementation is very uneven.

“Digital exclusion is a reality in the most vulnerable homes. In these environments, boys usually have more access to the Internet than girls. Their socialization and education within the families are less of a priority,” says Campos, from Plan International Brazil.

Unicef (UN agency for childhood) calculates, based on public data, that 5.5 million boys and girls were denied their right to education during the pandemic in Brazil. Stephany Rejani is among them. Before Covid-19, she struggled with structural problems, such as the lack of teachers. “When the pandemic started, the school didn’t form online study groups or offer a platform with classes. And nobody else wanted to study,” she says. “In my house we don’t have a computer, only two cell phones. It’s very hard to do assignments that way.”

Teenage motherhood is a reality in Brazil’s favelas and peripheries. Rejani gave birth at the age of 17. The father of her child is absent and pays her a pension of only R$250 per month. Her own father is also absent, and her mother works as a cleaning lady in a daycare center. What she earns -about R$1,100 – is not enough to pay for electricity, Internet, food, and to maintain the family. So, besides her domestic chores and her studies, she was also forced to do some odd jobs to supplement her monthly income. Her studies were no longer a priority.

In addition, during the pandemic, the closing of schools was a blow to many vulnerable families forced to leave their children at the schools in order to work. In many cases it fell to the older daughters to take care of their siblings. “I clean the house and cook the basics, like rice and beans,” Rejani says. The result of all this is that, at age 20, the young woman has not finished high school. “We need to learn and develop our skills, but it is very difficult with a poor high school education,” she says. She wants to attend university and, one day, to study Education. “I like children,” she justifies.

Keeping these young girls motivated is one of the main challenges in the pandemic. “The lack of interest or abandoning classes happens because it is difficult to maintain a study routine at home. Besides housework, there is a lack of family support. Their fathers and mothers are workers with a very tough educational background. Many envision for their children to work and have their own families,” says Ramos, from UNEAFRO.

In 2020, the movement signed an agreement with a private university for psychology students to form listening and support groups for these young people preparing for the ENEM (standard university entrance exam) and university. “The girls feel very anxious about having to maintain this study routine with all the workload at home. They have to fulfill various roles at home without, in many cases, their parents providing them with family support,” says Ramos.

The NGO Plan International, which before the pandemic kept in touch with almost 10,000 families through its in-person projects, also maintains its programs online. “We deal with child violence, girls’ empowerment, we talk about sexual and reproductive rights,” says Campos. It is a way to keep these young girls motivated and supported. “We also have to remember that sexual and domestic violence happens inside the home. With the quarantine, reports have increased, but so have depression and anxiety. We even heard reports of self-mutilation,” she says.

Stephany Rejani has not yet returned to school in 2021. And she is certain that, after the pandemic, she will not go back to “youth” activities in her community. In the recent past, she took up soccer, chess, percussion and circus classes, offered by social organizations that operate in Jardim Lapena. “I don’t believe I have the chance to go back to those activities,” he says. “It’s time to do adult things, like study computers and English.”

Source: El Pais