The International Specialised Catholic Action Movements (Miacs) represent more than 500 movements around the world with a great diversity of countries and backgrounds. One year of exchanges about the impacts of the Covid on the respective members resulted in the common conviction that “a system that cannot solve these problems […] must change”. The pandemic brutally aggravates pre-existing problems such as unemployment, inequalities between genders, between rich and poor within and between countries as shown by various surveys carried out by Midade, Fimarc and the IYCW.

Young workers have been particularly affected by the pandemic that hit all continents in 2020. Governments and actors of society have to unite to support them, as requested by the International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) based in Brussels and active on all continents. 

With the title “The impact of Covid-19 on young workers,” the International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) has published, in about twenty pages, an analysis based on the See-Judge-Act method of the movement. It was presented at the beginning of a webinar that brought together over a hundred participants from more than 30 different countries on Saturday, December 12, despite the time differences. They included current and former YCW leaders, but also partners and supporters from all over the world, from Australia and Venezuela to Belgium, from Gabon to Argentina, from Sri Lanka and Canada to Tanzania, including members of other movements and organizations, such as the International Labour Organization (ILO).

An In-Depth Study

Quoting testimonies of YCW members from Egypt, Peru, Haiti, Germany, Japan, Brazil and the Philippines, this analysis first shows that due to the spread of Covid-19, young workers were among the first victims and they lost their sources of income, but also that the digitization of the (working) world has accelerated with both positive and negative consequences. The survey goes on to indicate that gender inequalities and injustices are even more pronounced and that migrants are particularly impacted, especially in refugee camps where it is, to say the least, difficult to respect social distancing! The lack of social protection is even more blatant, health is endangered as it is not being guaranteed at work, and reactions within the society vary greatly, with on the one hand many actions of solidarity and, on the other hand, many questions as to the real societal priorities.

Today, November 25, as we celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we, the International Young Christian Workers, want to highlight the issues that young women are facing all over the world, from harassment to violence, discrimination and femicide, and we want to let those young women know that their cry has been heard.

"My boss wanted me to be alone with him all the time so he could kiss me by force. He was very aggressive. It became very difficult to say no to him. I didn't say anything because I had no choice and I needed the job. He ended up firing me because I was resisting him. That day I went home crying because I realized that I was unemployed again". - Gabon

In the last decades, humanity took steps toward the elimination of violence against women, but throughout this year only, all those steps have been demolished and humanity has taken hundreds of steps backward.