Priest teaches rural communities in Santiago to generate income by recycling cans during times of crisis.

In the midst of the profound economic crisis that Cuba faces, the Catholic priest Leandro NaunHung, from Santiago de Cuba, has found a creative way to help his community generate additional income: recycling aluminum cans.

Through social media, NaunHung shared a video in which he encourages residents of rural areas to collect empty beer cans and other products as a way to support both the parish and their own families.

"The streets are full of beer cans. Even if there is no money to eat, there is money to drink," commented the priest, who has created a system for collecting and selling cans with the aim of raising funds for small community needs, such as snacks.

"By selling those little cans, one can also contribute to having snacks and those things. It's a little, but it's help," he noted.

NaunHung emphasized that no one is too poor to contribute, and highlighted that the initiative aims to promote collective awareness about collaboration and self-sufficiency.

The priest explained that the cans collected by the members of his community are crushed, stored, and then sold, an effort that, although small, helps meet basic needs in a context where money is scarce and food prices continue to rise.

In his video, NaunHung highlighted the need for people to fight to obtain resources, at a time when the regime increasingly fails to meet the distribution of regulated products in the basic goods basket, and he emphasized the importance of community action in times of crisis.

From his social networks, the Cuban priest Leandro NaunHung exposes the invisible reality of the rural communities of Santiago de Cuba, as well as the problems that most affect this population.

Recently, the priest shared the story of a mother who uses purslane leaves.

NaunHung published a video on YouTube where a mother is seen preparing what he called a "survival recipe."

In recent days, the priest distributed bread during a Sunday mass in a rural area of Santiago de Cuba, highlighting this gesture as a way to share joy and resist the harsh reality faced by Cubans.

NaunHung, in a video published on Facebook, expressed a message of hope and solidarity while distributing bread in a rural area of Santiago de Cuba: “We bring you a gift, we bring you bread,” said the priest, highlighting that, amid the crisis affecting so many families, sharing food is a way to bring joy.

"Now that the bread is coming so small, and that it comes or doesn't come, or will come one day because of so much crisis," he added, emphasizing that celebrating mass is a reason for joy and strengthening of faith, especially in times of great hardship, like the current one, when people tend to turn to religion.