UNESCO will deliver kits of school and recreational materials to support some 3,500 students who were directly affected by the passage of two devastating cyclones and an earthquake between October and November, the agency reported on Friday.
The program also includes the donation of funds to “young student leaders,” said Anne Lemaistre, UNESCO regional representative in Cuba, during a press conference.
“We are not a humanitarian agency, but we are intervening more and more,” acknowledged Lemaistre, indicating the institution’s concern about the impact of meteorological events and the earthquake that, in one month, hit the island.
Hurricane Oscar crossed eastern Cuba on October 20, severely affecting localities in the east, in the provinces of Guantánamo and Granma, and leaving eight dead; At the same time, Rafael hit the west of the island on November 6, leaving no deaths but many material losses, the figures for which have not yet been published by the government.
Besides, The country suffered two outages of the National Energy System that left the island in darkness and aggravated the tense economic situation that, according to authorities, would contribute to the country reporting a decrease in its Gross Domestic Product in 2024.
The United Nations, on which UNESCO depends, reported in recent days that its action plan in response to the disasters in Cuba after Oscar was valued at about 30 million dollars, but now it will be higher, around 78 million dollars. This would benefit some 900,000 people with construction materials, food and medicine.
Countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, China and Japan also sent aid, as well as the European Union.
The UNESCO project will cover the provinces of Granma and Guantánamo and will then extend to Havana and Artemisa. The support modules that were shown to the press include a specific one with educational games. The peculiarity is that all of its material was in turn purchased from small private entrepreneurs, an emerging economic figure in Cuba, where private businesses were restricted until a reform in 2021.
According to the UNESCO report, 3,500 students, more than 500 teachers, 150 educational methodologists, 140 young people who will become project leaders to improve their neighborhoods and some 10,000 people who were affected in the communities will benefit.
The agency obtained funds for about $30,000 from its donors and the benefiting schools will get about $1,000 each, including materials and the fund for young student leaders.
During the press conference this Friday, the vice minister of education Cira Piñeiro reported that between the three events – the two cyclones and the earthquake – 876 educational centers had been affected, so in many towns children were teaching classes in local and teachers’ housing and even in a tent. The entire education system is public in Cuba.
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