{"id":341518,"date":"2012-11-14T10:40:01","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T09:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/cuba-the-dignity-of-a-people\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:08:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:08:00","slug":"cuba-the-dignity-of-a-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/cuba-the-dignity-of-a-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba, the dignity of a people"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u2018Havana, 5 November 2012. I came back yesterday from Santiago, Palma Soriano and Banes.<\/strong> It was a very painful experience but, at the same time, good for me. We left on a bus bulging with food and clothing: a drop in the ocean in comparison with people\u2019s needs. We arrived at the very moment when food had run out for many families. Youth for a United World<\/a><\/strong> and Teens for Unity<\/a><\/strong> were waiting for us to help unloading and distributing what we had brought. It was a shock to see the city\u2019s devastation:<\/strong> rubble everywhere, most of the streets blocked, 80% of the trees uprooted, many houses in ruins and thousands of people injured and homeless. It was like a war zone.<\/strong> People\u2019s dignity, despite their pain, as they thanked God for being alive, was impressive. And, above all, it was striking to see the willingness to help others rebuild, for example, putting back a roof on a house. \u2018David, who is 15 years old, told me, \u201cA huge tree fell on my house<\/strong>, but the roof is made of cement and so it was all right. But my uncle\u2019s house was destroyed. My aunt and he managed to save their 5 month old child by smashing a neighbour\u2019s window. They came to stay with us and later on other children from the area arrived. There was no electricity and, by candlelight, my sister and I began getting an evening meal ready for the little ones and looking for blankets so they would not get cold. When we heard that the church had fallen down, I rushed out to help the parish priest. He was not injured, the building was in ruins. Only one wall was left standing. On it were the crucifix and Jesus Eucharist in the tabernacle. With other Gen<\/a> <\/strong>and our friends from the parish we cleared away the mess, cleaned the priest\u2019s house and salvaged a few pews and other things. Then we organized shifts to keep a watch over the parish buildings. Even the nun\u2019s convent had been damaged. And so, every day after my morning shift, I went to their place to help them, without going home to sleep.\u201d \"\"\u2018Then we left Santiago to go to Palma Soriano (42km from Santiago). <\/strong>The houses were not badly damaged, but people had nothing to eat. We arrived just in time to bring them something. \u2018After that I went to Banes (300km from Santiago).<\/strong> There I discovered how generous those amazing people are. With one of the Gen 3<\/a><\/strong> I went to several shops to get food and clothing of the best quality at the lowest price, so as to be able to help the most people possible. At one point I realized I didn\u2019t have the money I needed because I\u2019d already spend half of it in Santiago. I was not going to be able to get what was necessary: rice, sugar and so on. My Gen 3 friend gave me 10 dollars; I was surprised and moved because it was all he had apart from his fare home. When I came to another town, another Gen 3 gave me 25 dollars that he had been given to buy food and clothing. Like that I could get some 50kg bags of rice, sugar, wheat and cornflour. When I got to Banes, the local priest embraced me and wept because what I was bringing in the name of the Movement, fruit of sharing among many people, came just at the moment that they were at the end of all the aid the bishop had sent. \u2018What has emerged in this natural disaster is the dignity, strength, faith, goodness and heroism<\/strong>of these young people of all ages (and the adults too) who went beyond their own needs and problems to think of the needs of others and throw themselves without stinting into loving and serving.\u2019 A. C. ______________________________________ To find our more or give to the project:<\/strong> AMU \u2013\u00a0http:\/\/www.amu-it.eu<\/a> Associazione Azione per un Mondo Unito c\/o Banca Popolare Etica, Rome Branch. IBAN: IT16G0501803200000000120434 SWIFT\/BIC CCRTIT2184D Payments made to: Progetto: La mia casa \u00e8 la tua casa<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The diary of a journey by a focolarino who helps young Cubans discover Focolare life. Some of their houses were destroyed by the recent hurricane. An experience of solidarity and the dignity of a people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}