14ymedio, Havana, 22 November 2024 — Classes for 1,188 students in Pilón, Granma province, have had to be moved to businesses, backyards and even tents. The earthquakes of November 10, with magnitudes of 6.0 and 6.7, damaged the infrastructure of the Pequeñines de Celia daycare centers, the Juan Vitalio Acuña Núñez junior high school and the Augusto César Sandino semi-boarding school, and they are in danger of collapse.
According to the official magazine Alma Mater, the region saw “41 schools, out of a total of 75, eight of them completely” affected by the earthquakes, which since the 10th of this month have already caused more than 5,000 aftershocks. The damage to the school network is so great that “they are working in the variants of classrooms attached to family homes, the homes of teachers and workers in the sector, and state institution premises, in a single session, and without food service,” the same newspaper published.
The head of the Social Care Department, Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo, confirmed that after an assessment and due to the damage to its structure, specialists have recommended “demolishing” the Augusto César Sandino semi-boarding school. A collapsed roof, cracks in walls, a sinking floor and the collapse of beams are some of the damages to this school, which was founded in 1974 and had an enrollment of 552 children between five and 11 years old, who received classes in 24 classrooms.
“Do we have to reorganize the school network? Yes! Now the immediate solution was to look for alternatives,” said the official. Broche Lorenzo also reported that the Pequeñines de Celia daycare center is also considered a total loss and acknowledged that “it will take time to rebuild these two educational institutions.”
The Cuban Communist Party echoed the statements of the director of the semi-boarding school Marlene Mayaso Araujo in which she stressed that “the pioneers (students) began the school year, not in the way we wanted, but we know that they are receiving their academic content.”
Journalist Jorge Luis Ríos Frías, who shared images of the tented classrooms, proclaimed that the so-called “Little Friends of the FAR” [Revolutionary Armed Forces] has the “necessary conditions that ensure the quality of the teaching process” for “350 pioneers of the Augusto César Sandino semi-boarding school.”
Meanwhile, the kindergarten students have had to take classes in classrooms and on the terraces of their homes, while another group of 20 of the 173 students have been cared for since last Monday at the Almeida hostel, located on Camilo Cienfuegos Avenue in the coastal municipality of Pilón.
Granma TV shared photos of the work of the Provincial Company for Education Assurance and Services in the daycare center.
While the remodeling work begins and to prevent theft, teachers from the Juan Vitalio Acuña Núñez urban basic secondary school (Esbu) work four-hour shifts to guard the facility from outside.
Another school affected by the earthquakes was the mixed center in the People’s Council of Seville. Due to the damage, classes are offered in shelters.
The passage of hurricanes Oscar and Rafael, two major earthquakes and a series of blackouts in less than a month have been the trigger for international humanitarian aid to begin arriving on the island, which is in the midst of a serious economic, food and energy crisis.
A second ship with 200 tons – mostly of construction materials – was sent by the Venezuelan government. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil indicated that the cargo will arrive between next Monday or Tuesday at the port of Santiago de Cuba.
On November 6, Venezuela sent a first ship with more than 300 tons of aid in the form of kitchen utensils, mattresses, galvanized zinc sheets, iron pipes and ceiling hooks, as well as personal hygiene products.
In recent weeks, the governments of Mexico, Japan and Russia have also sent shipments of humanitarian aid. The European Union and the United Nations sent 94 tons of medicines, medical supplies and other essential goods.
Other donations followed: nine tons from Spain, $160,000 worth of essential supplies from Japan, $600,000 from Norway via the UN Central Emergency Response Fund and 40 tons of powdered milk from Slovakia via the World Food Programme (WFP).
Several NGOs have also revealed their plans to assist the island, such as the 24 tons of humanitarian aid from the International Red Cross, which arrived last week. For her part, the newly inaugurated president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, justified the sending of fuel to Cuba on “humanitarian grounds” following reports that she was sending 400,000 barrels of crude oil to the island after the blackout that left the entire country in darkness for several days in October.
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