The Cuban singer Mawell gifted a toy motorcycle worth 140 dollars to a child who was accompanying his parents to pick up trash on the streets of Havana, in a gesture that caught the attention of thousands of people on social media.
The meeting took place at the corner of the artist's own house, who recorded the moment and shared it on his Facebook account with a description that sums up the scene: "A 3-year-old boy accompanies his mom and family to pick up trash around Havana. I ran into him at the corner of my house and gave him a $140 motorcycle. He left very happy. Look at the end where he says thank you, and you can see the happiness on his face."
The video shows, in the background, a large pile of trash with black bags, cardboard boxes, and various waste accumulated in the corner, while an adult rummages through the garbage and the child waits.
The image encapsulates a reality that is increasingly recurring in Cuba: entire families, including young children, roam the streets of Havana searching for reusable or valuable materials among the trash as a survival strategy amid the economic crisis the country is facing.
Havana accumulates over 30,000 cubic meters of uncollected waste daily, turning its streets into makeshift dumps where families in poverty search for what the State can no longer —or does not want to— provide.
This gesture by Mawell is not the first. Last year, he gifted a thousand pesos to a young candy seller he found working under the sun, and then repeated the gesture with 5,000 pesos, stating: "I am a father above all and a human being as well".
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