By Vanessa Cort
SOMEONE walking down the street in this country and apparently talking to himself or herself may immediately be labelled ‘mad’, when in fact that person may simply be using ear buds and talking on his/her cell phones.

But this leads me to ask the question, ‘How are we coping in the face of a pandemic which has devastated the world?’
We have been told to socially distance, which has meant that normal social interaction had to stop as people were urged to stay at home and keep contact to a minimum.

For those who depend on visits from family, especially the elderly, the feeling of isolation and of being abandoned must have led to untold worry and anxiety.
Wage earners were suddenly faced with decreased working hours and many were laid-off, causing widespread financial hardship to families and in particular those with only one breadwinner.

One of my sons had his working hours reduced to the point where he said it made ‘no sense’ going to work because his salary had shrunk so much.
A daughter, working at the airport, found herself out of work as flights stopped coming into the country and the airport closed down, leaving her with the prospect of looking for other employment in a shrinking job market.

Mothers were suddenly having to ‘put food on the table’ with far less money available to them. Those who were working often found themselves jobless, with a spouse either on a reduced income or also out of work.

Single parent families, more often than not, run by a woman have been particularly affected. One woman with two children told me she actually felt like one of the ‘lucky’ ones, because she had some savings and opened a stand selling snacks she made, in front of her home. “At first I didn’t know what to do,” she said, recounting her confusion when she was told that her job as a cleaner was no longer available.

But then she lost her job because her employers, who owned a small business, could no longer pay her and were themselves struggling to ‘keep their doors open’.

Schools in this country have been closed for almost 18 months now and parents have been faced with the daunting prospect of trying to keep their children educated, via Zoom and other online Apps, or simply keeping them occupied. School-aged children have themselves been dealing with the frustration of being away from school for such a prolonged period and often having no physical contact with their friends.

And online learning is only an option for those households with a computer and with Internet service or the wherewithal to buy data and keep their children connected to those teachers who are able to offer online classes.

This all adds an increased financial burden to some, while for the majority it has meant that their children are at home, with nothing to do and as one mother remarked, “all day to do it”.
What of those households with several school-aged children? How are mothers managing with their children at home all day? And what of those who depended on day-care facilities in order to work? Not only were they forced to quit work, as the centres closed their doors, but they were also faced with the unenviable prospect of having young children constantly underfoot.

Given all of this pressure, how do we cope? This is really a question for the experts, particularly now that there is an ongoing debate surrounding the whole issue of vaccination and how we move on from here.

Next week I’ll be talking with some of those most qualified to answer this question.