Retired teacher lives practically outdoors since Hurricane Matthew destroyed her home

A retired Cuban teacher has been living practically outdoors since Hurricane Matthew destroyed her home in 2016.

Arlenis Barrio Frómeta, 68, has been asking the government for help to repair his home for years, but no one gives him an answer, even though all the organizations involved are well aware of his situation.

"It was a partial collapse. They gave me a bonus: 300 blocks, a door and that's it. They haven't given me anything else," he denounced in an interview with the independent agency CubaNet.

Barrio Frómeta resides alone in Baracoa, Guantánamo. She would like her son to be with her, but there is no room for anyone else in the humble space she lives in.

After the weather phenomenon, her son managed to prepare a part of the room, where the old woman has her bed, but due to the poor condition of the roof, she cannot prevent it from getting wet when it rains.

The old woman would like them to give her a subsidy or sell her the materials to rebuild her house, which has been in that condition for five years.

The government only gave him a queen pot to prepare his food, but it broke and he then had to buy a rice cooker and a stove. To build his house he requested a subsidy more than a year ago, but he is still waiting for a response.

This whole situation has led her to get sick from her nerves and she can't get the medications she needs either, she only calms her anxiety and depression by preparing herbal teas.

After 31 years working as a history teacher, she feels "practically abandoned, if nothing has been resolved for me," she said.

"Everything is so expensive, that thanks to a son that I have who helps me, I can more or less solve it," he said.

Manuel Cruz Barrio, the son of Barrio Frómeta, regretted that a person who spent more than 30 years working for the revolution is spending his old age in these conditions.

"The hurricane destroyed his house and the government has done nothing. The social workers know it, the president of the CDR knows it, the delegate knows it, everyone knows it. How long will they continue to say that there is equality in this country "he questioned.

"My mother is almost 70 years old and when she has to rest after retiring, she is having a hard time. Sometimes I have come home and she is sleeping and the sun is shining on her, she gets wet every time it rains, she sleeps with her moon in the face. How long will they continue saying that there is equality in this country," he added.

There are countless cases of Cubans whose homes were affected by a cyclone or hurricane and live in precarious conditions without support from the authorities. The worst thing is that many of these people are elderly who live alone, without any family to help them, and who must cover their expenses with the measly checkbook they receive from the government.

Last year CubaNet reported the case of a woman from Songo La Maya, in the province of Santiago de Cuba, who has lived with her disabled son in deplorable conditions since 2012, when Hurricane Sandy devastated her home.

Since then María Caridad Rodríguez Vera He barely survives in a hut made of bamboo stalks without the most basic things to survive., with a patched bed, a couple of dilapidated pots, a television with improvised parts and carrying water in buckets from a well, located several meters from the house.

After the cyclone hit, the State only provided him with some zinc sheets for the roof, which when the wind blows and it rains, the water penetrates through the cracks in the bamboo of the walls, and Rodríguez tries to remedy this with pieces of nylon.