WIEGO Blog

During the pandemic, when waste pickers face harassment, eviction, stigmatization and a decline in earnings, building connections has proven an important mental aid and critical survival strategy for many. On International Waste Pickers’ Day, we celebrate those connections. 

WIEGO’s CataSaúde Viraliza project – an online capacity building course – was created in Brazil in 2020 as a response to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. An important goal was to create lasting connections during a time of isolation between organized and autonomous workers, as well as among waste pickers in the Latin America region. 

O projeto CataSaúde Viraliza da WIEGO – um curso de capacitação on-line – foi criado no Brasil em 2020 como uma resposta aos desafios da pandemia da COVID-19. Um objetivo importante foi o de criar conexões duradouras entre trabalhadores organizados e autônomos durante o tempo de isolamento, bem como entre os catadores de resíduos na região da América Latina.

2021 was another tough year for informal workers. The crisis is by no means over for them, so we're looking at what we have learnt from the pandemic in 2021, so that workers can be supported better in 2022. 

As we near the end of 2021, billions of people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 – widely regarded as the best way out of this pandemic, which continues to disrupt livelihoods around the world. Yet, massive global inequity in vaccine distribution means that many more, including a huge number of informal workers, have missed out.