Whale the thermometer of the population decrease in Brave the face of unemployment on the island

Nova Sintra, Jan 4 (Bravanews) - Those who visit Baleia, on the south coast of Brava Island, have the feeling of visiting a small treasure, but also the same feeling of coming from the future.

Peaceful, silent, rural, undoubtedly a village for summer and rest, but paradoxically abandoned, with young people and adults without hope for a better future.

With a population of around five dozen souls, most of them walking or in old age, Baleia stopped in time.

Unemployment is rampant, hope is lost every day, the young only think about traveling and the old count the days they have left and ask for more attention to the village.

Candidate for “ghost village”, Baleia can be considered the thermometer of Brava Island in terms of the drastic decrease in population and the face of unemployment that abounds in Djabraba.

Speaking with a resident, he added that the village "now has 51 people, including children and adults, with the majority of young people in a situation of unemployment or precarious employment".

“During last year, I worked for just 2 months, earning only 10,000 escudos, money that the authorities think will support us throughout the year”, he vents.

The few residents are always concerned about emergencies or accidents, in which it will be necessary to transport people to the hospital, as access will be precarious.

Contacted, the Mayor of Brava, Francisco Tavares confirmed the drastic decrease in the population and advanced some projects that will be executed during the year 2020.

“Baleia, unfortunately, is a place with fewer and fewer inhabitants due to the emigration of entire families”, he claimed, adding that for Baleia, “the investment in mind is a small square in the center of the village, an investment indicated by the population after a meeting held in the zone”.

“It is an area of cattle ranchers and fishermen, the drought has affected the already weak local economy and the CMB has responded with public employment in cleaning the vicinal access roads to Baleia, Garça and in the interior of Mato Grande, two to three times a year with an average duration of 2 months each, in which one member is employed in each house”, he concluded.

MS