14ymedio.com

More than 1,750,000 students are enrolled in the 2017-2018 academic year in the 10,698 country’s educational institutions, Education Minister Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella said on Thursday.

A teaching assistant laments that the authorities impose many demands but that the schools do not have the circumstances to fulfill them

The controls require that every school have the necessary cleaning tools and wastebaskets installed in every classroom, along with disinfectants for the bathrooms and, if there are kitchens in the building, a stable supply of detergent, according to Ministry of Education source who spoke with 14ymedio and who preferred anonymity.

“They have already inspected and found several problems, so we are asking parents to help us with cleaning implements and products such as bleach, as well as cloths to clean the floor and brooms,” says Milagros, a teaching assistant in a primary school in Havana’s Cerro neighborhood.

The assistant laments that the authorities impose many demands but that the schools do not have the circumstances to fulfill them. They have managed to keep the schools clean “because parents collect money among themselves and buy what is needed.”

For Milagros, the lack of cleaning staff is the main problem to maintaining hygiene in schools. “Nobody wants to work cleaning in a school for less than 20 CUC a month, when in a hotel or in a private house you get double or triple,” she says. “Last year we were without a cleaning assistant for a full semester,” she complains.

The hygiene work is often undertaken by the parents themselves and the management of the schools convenes voluntary work days frequently to clean and beautify the classrooms.

As a result of these inspections it was revealed that 136 of the 600 schools of Villa Clara received a poor evaluation from the sanitary authorities for their hygienic conditions. Facility workers must solve the problems before the end of summer.

“Every year we parents complain about the problems with water and the cleaning of the bathrooms,” explains Lázara Roque, mother of a student at Camilo Cienfuegos Elementary School in Santa Clara. The woman fears that these difficulties will become an ideal breeding ground for the spread of the disease.

Hemorrhagic conjunctivitis is of viral origin and highly transmissible. Its contagion occurs through contamination with ocular fluids or drops of saliva, as well as through the hands and objects that have touched an individual infected by the disease.

“I have told my son to only drink boiled water that he carries from home, but it is very difficult to control him touching his eyes with his hands,” explains the mother. “The Ministry of Education should evaluate postponing the start of the school year in neighborhoods where the situation is the worst,” she suggests.

As a result of these inspections it was revealed that 136 of the 600 schools of Villa Clara received a poor evaluation from the sanitary authorities for their hygienic conditions

Since last May, health authorities have warned of the presence of the epidemic hemorrhagic conjunctivitis virus on the island. The first confirmed patients were reported in Santiago de Cuba and Havana, but with the arrival of summer, the outbreak spread to Ciego de Ávila and other provinces.

Currently, the territories with the highest number of cases are Guantanamo (858), Santiago de Cuba (359), Havana (154), Ciego de Ávila (35) and Las Tunas (21), according to data from the Ministry of Public Health.

Doctors warn that people suffering symptoms such as eye irritation, sensitivity to light, tearing, eyelid edema or redness of the eyes should go immediately to the health services. They also advise avoiding the use of home remedies to relieve discomfort.

Central America and the Caribbean is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of conjunctivitis in its history

Official media have emphasized that eye drops and medications used for other types of conjunctivitis should not be applied, only cold water sprays should used.

Central America and the Caribbean is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of conjunctivitis in its history. In Nicaragua, more than 11,000 people are reported affected this year, almost five times more than in 2016. In Panama, the number of people infected has climbed to 50,000 cases.

“The Caribbean Public Health Agency is monitoring the situation and urges people to take the necessary actions to prevent and reduce the spread of the virus,” said Dr. Virginia Asin-Oostburg, Director of Surveillance for that regional organization.

The increase in the number of passengers between Panama and Cuba, a frequent route for ‘mules’ importing goods for the informal market, worries authorities. In the main airports of the country medical personnel have been instructed to include in their screening of travelers questions about possible itching or irritation in the eyes.

Cubans are living longer and longer and life expectancy I now close to 79.5 years, while the period couples dedicate to reproduction is shorter, as it conflicts with the time that women can spend on their careers.

When she was little, Yadira Ramos called her dolls with the names she dreamed of for her future daughters: “Lucrecia, Lucia and Amanda.” However, the plans for a large family collided with reality. “The situation is such that there is not enough to have more than one child,” the pregnant woman explains to 14ymedio.

Married to a waiter working in a state-owned restaurant, the future mother belongs to a social stratum that lives day-to-day, without being able to afford luxuries. Most of her last year’s salary has been used for the purchase of diapers, bottles and a cradle. “The budget doesn’t stretch and without the gifts people have given me I do not know how I would manage,” she says.

Like many other Cubans, Ramos preferred to postpone motherhood until she had a “more solid” job position. She says that “after a woman gives birth, it becomes very difficult for her to assume management responsibilities at work because she has to take on more tasks at home.”

Like many other Cubans, Ramos preferred to postpone motherhood until she had a “more solid” job position

In February of this year, the Government launched new provisions to encourage births, such as the paying other family members for the care of minors and tax cuts for women workers in the private sector who have two or more children. However, the measures are far from solving a problem that goes beyond the low salaries and the insufficient payments for maternity leave.

The search for the causes of the decline in births has become a point of friction. Official voices point to the freedoms enjoyed by women as the reason they delay pregnancy and have fewer children. While on the street, comments from ordinary people point to the economy and housing problems.

Women serve as heads of household in 45% of families and hold 66% of technical jobs, but the distribution of domestic work remains inequitable. Machismo still determines that women are responsible for most of the care of a newborn.

This disproportion of tasks discourages many women from becoming mothers. “I have not yet found a man who can serve as the father of my children,” said Tania, 24, a nursing assistant at a polyclinic in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution municipality. “It’s a decision that needs to be taken very seriously.”

Tania has had six abortions so far. “I do not have the circumstances to have a child and I will not bring one into the world to work,” she says. She feels that “many pregnancies end in interruption because the family can not assume the expenses of a baby.”

In 2016, 85,445 induced abortions were carried out in Cuba, according to data from the Statistical Yearbook of Health, while only 116,725 children were born.

In 2016, 85,445 induced abortions were carried out in Cuba, according to data from the Statistical Yearbook of Health, while only 116,725 children were born

In Tania’s case, the search for the appropriate father is joined by an old dream of emigration. “With a child it becomes much more difficult to get a visa for anywhere and it is very difficult to start from scratch in another country,” the nurse said. Emigration is another of the many reasons that fertility is plunging on the island.

According to Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga, Director and Researcher for the Center for Population and Development Studies of the National Office of Statistics and Information, the decline in the birth rate is associated with advances in “the conditions of the family and of women” along with “policies for the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights.”

However, the specialist acknowledges that “unresolved, material problems associated with housing shortages, lack of goods” and “high prices” also contribute to reducing the number of births.

Despite the fall in the number of births, Cuban women continue to receive strong social pressure to be mothers

Despite the fall in the number of births, Cuban women continue to receive strong social pressure to be mothers. In the collective imagination, motherhood is the “consecration” of women and those who postpone the arrival of a child are criticized by friends and family.

The poet and writer Irela Casaña reflects on these social pressures and says that she is often asked why she has not had a baby. “Who’s going to take care of you when you’re old?” a friend asked her recently. The writer laments that this means “now children are an investment, a natural loan and with high interest rates.”

Yadira Ramos has already chosen a name for the baby she expects in a few weeks. “She will be called Amanda, like one of my childhood dolls,” she says.

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Editor’s Note: This report was made with the support of the Howard G Buffet Fund for Women Journalists from the International Women’s Media Foundation.