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A mother from Banes, Holguín, has shaken social media with a cry for help that reveals the neglect faced by vulnerable families in Cuba, especially those with sick children who rely on state assistance to survive.
Her daughter, an epileptic child who has just undergone surgery for gastrostomy and tracheostomy—procedures that require constant care, specialized nutrition, and electricity to suction secretions—is at risk due to the lack of support from local authorities, despite repeated requests for assistance.
In a public post on Facebook, the mother, Alianis Ronda, describes the critical situation: her daughter can only be fed through a tube directly into her stomach and requires frequent suction. For this, she needs a continuous supply of electricity.
The government gave him a solar panel, but he cannot use it either because the batteries are defective, and no one has responded to his request for repair or replacement.
Without electricity, the family cannot even properly prepare the blended foods that the girl needs as her exclusive diet.
"You, as mothers, know that one cooks as if it were on three stones, but what do you do to beat it (the food)?" laments Alianis, who insists she is manually grinding the food, passing it through a strainer, which does not ensure the necessary nutrients.
"What I am giving her is water," she writes, desperate at the impossibility of feeding her as her medical condition requires.
The mother claims to have approached the municipal government institutions without receiving a solution: they have only told her to "wait."
However, he emphasizes that the health of a dependent minor cannot be subjected to the same scheme of postponed promises that authorities are accustomed to.
"Before they used to say that children had priority, but I see that is not the case anymore. Maybe if my daughter were the child of someone in the government or had a position of power, they would have given me a new one right away," she laments.
After Hurricane Melissa, they haven't even visited the cases that need assistance
The situation worsened after the recent hurricane, Alianis claims.
She accuses the local government of not even having visited the homes in emergencies, while in other municipalities they distribute milk and other products.
Although their daughter was prescribed a diet including milk, they have never received any assistance. As a result, they have been forced to buy it at 200 pesos per bag, an exorbitant cost for families relying on a state salary.
"It's an abuse all around," she concludes, warning that if she doesn't receive a response, she will go "where they listen to a desperate mother who can't take it anymore."
A voice that represents thousands
This mother's plea not only highlights a specific failure. It exposes the daily helplessness experienced by families with sick children in a country where medical priority and social protection are presumed.
The lack of resources, the deterioration of public services following climatic phenomena, and the inequality in access to aid that seems to favor those with connections to power leave children like this girl at risk of death.
While the official discourse claims that "we are all equal," the experience of Alianis Ronda illustrates how, in vulnerable sectors, that equality becomes an empty promise: the health and life of a child can literally depend on whether their family has political connections or not.
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