The state of desertion on Mocha Island is not enough. From the community they say they feel in relation to the rest of the country, in terms of access to education, sexual and reproductive health, drinking water, the internet, among many other things. On the other hand, events such as the death of fisherman Alvaro Vielma due to the lack of timely transfer to the mainland, highlight the crisis of connectivity suffered in the island, inhabited by more than 600 Mochanos and Mochanas.
By John Contreras Jara
The problems that plague Mocha Island are unsustainable, emphasizes Hugo Guzmán Sáez, president of the JJVV’s northern sector, who accuses them of being abandoned by the state for 40 years on their island. Cristian Poza, a teacher at the Mochana school, states that education is precarious, and that access to it is interrupted due to the lack of electricity, internet, water and drinking infrastructure. For that part, the resident and secretary of the parent center of the said school, Estefanía Ortiz, points to health and how girls and women are affected on the island, in terms of sexual and reproductive health.
In conversations with these three voices of Mochan, the word that is repeated is the abandonment of not only the municipal or regional authorities, but also the entire state. This unstable situation has resulted in the death of the population due to lack of transportation or community use to not consume drinking water, because the rural access program of the MOP is extremely poor.
Perhaps you are interested: Chronicle of reported death: Fisherman from Isla Mocha dies while awaiting transfer to mainland after accident.
From the municipality of Lebu, the authorities of the island of Mocha, recognize the reason for the feeling of desertion that emanates from the territory of the island, calling on other authorities to be more clear with the population. “It is clear with the inhabitants of the island, understanding that all the problems must be located and the borders, because they cannot think,” said Mayor Cristian Peña, with three borders in the body.
Although the mayor has announced improvements in education, with the construction of a new school, the inhabitants of Mocha Island are demanding short-term solutions, stressing that they are going back decades.
Mochana community blames the state of desertion: Connectivity and access to water
At the beginning of March, after the death of 27-year-old fisherman Alvaro Vielma Mocha, the connectivity crisis that the island is suffering from once again shocked the community. Only after this event, a meeting was held between the JJVV, the delegate of the provincial president, the mayor and the port authority, in order to establish an action protocol.
In this sense, Hugo Guzmán Saez, president of the JJVV of the North, expressed that “the abandonment of the state has always happened with the island. I have lived here for 40 years and we have the worst connectivity, everything is bad and there is always an excuse to solve problems”.
In the line of connectivity, the leader of the neighborhood points out, for example, “there is a supported plane here that has not flown since the 16th of December, when they left us with it. Although the boat was needed, Guzmán explains that “it was done last year two times and the agreement for the next year was supposed to be”.
It should be noted that in the community of Mochana, not having a plane support, it involves paying tickets that are around 40,000 pesos, when the boat cannot leave or does not meet the requirement.
It may be interesting for you: The neighbors were without reserve plane for one month in Isla Mocha: the tickets are about 40 thousand pesos.
But not just connectivity. The problem of access to water in Mocha Island is another serious problem that they explain from JJVV. They say that “it is not drinkable” and “we used to it, but people who come from abroad, the teachers to buy water”. In the south of the island, Guzmán notes, people keep their collection because “Civilization doesn’t get there for a good collection.”
He adds “we had faecal problems with the water a few years ago and everyone is acting crazy. Last year they took samples and said it was in bad shape, but it’s not so bad this year.
Access to Health
Added to the drama in connectivity and access to water, the island feels a serious lack of health and attention, which can be provided for certain events. They say the station works only from Monday to Friday until 5:00 am, “and if you do something bad outside those hours, you better hurry the drawer,” said Hugo Guzmán.
Who also returned to the attention of the island, Estefanía Ortiz, secretary of the office of the guardian of the school, who confirmed, in this sense, “experiences in an island deserted by the authorities”.
“There are three nurse technicians and on weekdays and holidays, the person at the office answers the phone. Here you can only administer some medicines and call the doctor in the office at Cesfa in Lebu to ask for the order, and if it cannot be treated here, you have to go outside for treatment. That is when all else fails, since there is no way to send the patient. Sometimes a three-day stomach pain turns into appendicitis. Every year we have cases of hypothermia due to accidents at sea, and there is no place to treat these patients”, explains Ortiz.
sexuality and identity
Another issue within health was precarious access to gynecological care, ups and downs for pregnant women, and sexual and identity in general.
For example, the resident tells, the midwife comes here, as much as possible, once a month, but there are months in which the visit is skipped. Here they take Pap, preventive blood tests, but they refer you to ultrasound scans, mammograms and more in-depth tests.”
This is where another big blow to the connectivity crisis suffered by the Mochana community appears. “That’s where it fails, because if I waited a year for a mammogram and maybe they gave it to me tomorrow, I’m going to say I can’t get it because I’m not.” I’m going to destroy the plane. This happens a lot, poor connectivity causes poor health.
Due to the shortage of midwives, those who are pregnant must move to Lebu, as the medical condition requires. “If the pregnancy is normal, it is likely, when she is about 8 months old, to have her in the continent, but if the pregnancy is longer, you should travel or. travel more regularly,” says Estafania Ortiz.
From the Mochana community, they declare that there is a decline in sexual and reproductive health, stating that “there is a long way to go not only in terms of diagnosis, but also to access more tests. to educate, to bring up Here the woman works a lot, suffers a lot of violence, much later compared to the continent, the role is very defined, education, below which education is the most important. In the eighth grade, boys come to high school and girls often do not complete it and prefer to go to work, because they see the exit as a continent.
Gaps in access to education
The right to education is another point to consider in the life of the Mochanas, not only the interruption in the infrastructural problems, but also the health problems.
The children from Mocha live with rats in their institution, the teacher Cristian Poza claims, in addition to pointing out that they did not drink water.
“Education here on the island is defined very doubtfully. Vulnerability at its best,” said the basic general education teacher.
As for the problems of access to water, the teacher says “the children are used to the bacteria in the water, but we, who come from abroad, drink the water and it’s bad.” It is noted that, during the winter, the water quality deteriorates, reaching the school with mud. “There are some filters in the pool, but nothing moves.”
The school has been in Isla Mocha since the early 1960s and without the expansion completed in the mid-1990s, the establishment did not receive much investment. The infrastructural problems are constant and due to poor planning, conditions such as the return to schools are rescheduled because the repair work started next to it and not in January, as announced by the municipality.
“Lack of resources, lack of infrastructure and lack of study plans,” says Poza. The professor reports that this year he will inform about the reduction of three teachers, which, according to his words, will only deepen the problems of quality and workload.
The lack of resources can be seen in the lack of internet, a situation that is controlled only this year, but not by the Ministry of Education, but rather “an external company that did some work and the antenna was so donated to us. We can hang one in the Carabinero.
Power outages also caused nearly 60 boys and girls who are educated in Isla Mocha to have access to education, having to suspend classes repeatedly or having them but without heating.
In terms of education, Mayor Cristian Peña stated that the school is the main one, announcing that “it has received a social recommendation in the school project of the Mocha Isla school”.
According to Peña, the investment would exceed 7 billion pesos and would include the construction of a new institution. “The residents of Isla Mocha had to send their children to the mainland because the conditions of the school did not meet, that was resolved with this project,” he said.
Despite this message, from the JJVV of the North Island of Mocha, they affirm, “We want them to be held, after being admitted, for at least a year, that is, two years or more.” Like a new school. In this verse, which Hugo Guzmán emphasizes, “we urgently need to repair what we have, that is the truth, so that we do not have a pine tree in the school, so that it is better heated for the children, etc.”
Mochanos and Mochanas claim dignity. They express that the environment of the state shows continuous signs of desertion, and some of them fall into a sensitive aspect as non-drinkable water or suitable for school, in its infrastructure, to build its students close to 60.
For this reason, the leader of the neighborhood emphasized that “it is a call to the powers that be to worry about the state of desertion in which we have. We know that there are many solutions in the medium and long term, but we must take account, for our dignity, for water, for health, for the education of children” .
