Women collectors of recyclables

Resistance strategies and medicines during the Covid-19 pandemic

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3073046
AutoresMiguel Eusébio Pereira Coutinho Júnior (0000-0003-0562-1888, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina), Eliana Elisabeth Diehl (0000-0003-2779-7710, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina)
Ano2024
Volume33
Fascículo1
Data de publicação2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSaúde e Sociedade (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0104-1290 • E-ISSN: 1984-0470
EditoraFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/s0104-12902024230509en
OpenAlexW4392856737
SCIELO_PIDS0104-12902024000100421
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas11

The collection of recyclable materials is an occupation with an increasing number of workers, who find in it a livelihood in a context of socioeconomic inequalities and unemployment. This article describes resistance strategies of women collectors who are part of an association in Northeast Brazil, in addition to describing how they managed health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially regarding medicines. A quantitative and an ethnographic approach were used by collecting data on sociodemographic and medicines present in the homes of 13 participants and conducting participant observation and in-depth interviews. Amid the health crisis, the participants mentioned problems such as unemployment, gender relations, violence, and work stigmas. If, on the one hand, the pandemic has further increased vulnerability for certain population segments, on the other hand, it has enhanced collective resistance strategies. The collectors of the association organized to obtain various materials and benefits both for their headquarters and their neighborhood. We identified 58 units of medicines, prescribed and obtained mainly at the Basic Health Unit. Of these, 27.6% had action on the nervous system (analgesics, psycholeptics, and psychoanaleptics) and 17.2% on the cardiovascular system and on the alimentary tract and metabolism. The collectors developed self-attention practices with the medicines highlighting their central role in facing health problems

Agriculture · Computer security · Context (archaeology) · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Disease · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Geography · Infectious disease (medical specialty) · Livelihood · Pandemic · Pathology · Population · Resistance (ecology) · Socioeconomic status · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Unemployment · Unit (ring theory) · Vulnerability (computing) · Health, Nursing, Elderly Care · Healthcare and Environmental Waste Management · Medicine · Psychology · Youth, Drugs, and Violence