Cuban child walks up to six kilometers to ask for money in Havana

A nine-year-old Cuban boy walks up to six kilometers each day in Havana, not to meet his friends or family, but to ask for money to eat.

The child lives somewhere in La Víbora, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, and every day walks slowly to El Vedado to try to buy at least two or three pizzas that cost 200 pesos.

The lawyer and writer Ricardo Acostarana met him and talked to him. The boy studies at Jesus Hernandez Alfonso Elementary School, he is in fourth grade, and he likes natural sciences.

She goes for a walk from Monday to Friday when she comes back from school. On Fridays, she arrives in Vedado earlier because classes only go until noon," she reported on her Facebook wall.

The boy doesn't take the bus; he doesn't know which bus to take until Vedado, and 'two pesos are two pesos,' or so I was told," he added.

Dozens of people commented on the publication, outraged by the cruel reality of childhood in Cuba, and some offered to help the protagonist of such a sad story.

"My heart tightens every time I see a child asking for money. I help with what I can. I don't fix the world but at least I think I contributed my bit. I wish I could do more," said a mother.

He is not an only child, hence so much sadness. I knew a similar case of a child who approached me on the street, but he lives in Guanabacoa. He told me that he dedicated himself to fixing yards, mowing, washing cars, whatever, he said. I was tormented. I gave him all the money I had on me," recounted a writer.

A resident in La Víbora claimed that in her neighborhood, many children and young people can be seen and heard even until late at night selling bread, plums, tamarind, among other things. "The worst part is that it seems like no one cares. In the very short term, we will be witnessing the sad consequences of this poor diet, nutrition, and lifestyle of today's children and young people," she lamented.

In what my country has become, that children have to go through this sad reality. I know of a similar story, but the 12-year-old child sells water to eat and does so after leaving school," a woman from Manzanillo denounced.