Cuban mother demands the government provide a wheelchair so her five-year-old son can go to school.

A Cuban mother demanded a wheelchair from the government so that her five-year-old son can go to school.

The child suffers from a physical disability that prevents him from walking and standing, and this September he started his first year of primary education without having a wheelchair that would allow him to move and attend school in decent conditions.

The mother, identified on Facebook as 'La Yessy Yessy', made a post in which she denounced the abandonment by the Cuban State and demanded that social services address her case.

"My son is 5 years old, he started school, he is disabled, he has stiff little feet, his spine is misaligned, he crawls on the floor to be able to play, or he holds onto the wall to be able to bathe. Today was his first day at school and can you believe that the Cuban state has not bothered to provide my son with a wheelchair, and I have to buy one for him?" said the mother.

It is striking that the mother describes the symptoms her son is experiencing, but does not mention a medical diagnosis of the illness he is suffering from. Based on his symptoms, the child could be suffering from cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, or spinal muscular atrophy, among others.

Beyond the diagnosis, what is certain is that the little one "lives with complexes because he cannot play with other children, nor sit near them because he cannot sit in regular chairs, because he falls," his mother explained.

"How is it possible that the State sells wheelchairs instead of giving them to those children who can't walk? They are not to blame for anything. Understand how unhappy they are. It doesn't bother me to buy it for him, because it’s so he can go to his school and feel comfortable, [but] it makes me angry the shamelessness of this country, especially with the children," he added.

The mother, who recognized herself as "desperate," demanded that the State take care of her son's situation.

A publication from the site La Tijera, dedicated to citizen journalism, identified the mother as Yessika Beletre Ramírez, a 22-year-old single mother living in precarious conditions with her two other children.

The family resides in the neighborhood of El Diezmero, in the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, and according to the mentioned site, the little boy is named Raimel Alejandro Estrada Beletre.

"If you wish to help their little one obtain the wheelchair they urgently need, you can contact their mother at the number 50585358," La Tijera stated.

Beyond the propaganda of the Cuban regime

In April 2019, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel and the retired general who left him in power, Raúl Castro Ruz, inaugurated the Amistad Cuba-Vietnam school for children with physical-motor disabilities in Santiago de Cuba.

According to Cubadebate, the then Minister of Education, Ena Elsa Velázquez, "highlighted the significance of this long-standing dream of Fidel in the midst of severe economic restrictions and the escalation of the blockade and hostility from the United States government, as well as the high costs of special education."

In the capital, there is the Solidaridad con Panamá school which, according to Tribuna de La Habana, has "classrooms for teaching, job preparation workshops, speech therapy services, psychopedagogy, psychology, and rehabilitation."

Additionally, "among the purposes of the institutions are physical-motor and psychological rehabilitation in relation to the diagnosis of each student and the objectives of the corresponding educational level to ensure continuity of studies."

Beyond the propaganda of the Cuban regime, the truth is that people with physical disabilities in Cuba suffer a painful situation of abandonment that forces them to turn to social media in search of help to alleviate their needs.

Recently, news emerged that the renowned Cuban actor Jorge Losada, who has been experiencing various health issues lately, needed a wheelchair to move around but could not afford it.

Luis Lacosta, art director at ICAIC who has helped him before, revealed on his Facebook profile that Losada needed to go out onto the street and that is the only way to do it. "We don't have money to buy," he said.

In April, there was a case of a Cuban woman with a rare disability that did not allow her to even stand upright, and she moved in a quadrupedal position, relying on all four limbs at the same time.

Despite her rare disability, the Cuban state was unable to provide her with a wheelchair. It had to be the Cuban comedian Limay Blanco, leader of the Ministry "Cristo Cambia Vidas," who donated two wheelchairs to Raquel, 62 years old and a resident of La Coloma in Pinar del Río.