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A religious community from Reparto Santa María, in Santiago de Cuba, inaugurated the House for Elders BETANIA, a permanent care facility for the elderly made possible through the support of donors and believers from United States, according to by Yordanis Acosta Porta.
«We thank God for this gift, to P. Halbert Pons, the promoter of this dream, to Rev. Servando, and the good friends from the USA who support this noble work,» Acosta Porta wrote when announcing the opening of the facility.
The images from the inauguration show elderly people sharing meals in a dining area with wooden tables and chairs, in a space that also features a equipped kitchen and a community room.
The same community also carried out a distribution of food modules to 50 families at the Santa María Church in Santiago de Cuba, with the support of “the good brothers of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. for their love and solidarity with Cuba,” according to the post.
The opening of BETANIA occurs at a time when elderly Cubans are facing an unprecedented crisis: 79% of those over 70 cannot have the three main meals of the day, and 99% of retirees state that their pension —increased to just 4,000 pesos in September 2025, equivalent to less than 10 dollars— is insufficient to cover basic needs.
Cuba is the most aged country in Latin America, with over 25% of its population being over 60 years old, while massive emigration—about 300,000 people just in 2024—has left tens of thousands of elderly without family members to care for them.
In the absence of the State, churches have taken on a central role in social assistance. The San Juan Methodist Church feeds more than 400 people every Sunday in Santiago de Cuba, including the elderly and vulnerable families.
In April of this year, five containers of humanitarian aid from the U.S. arrived at the port of Santiago de Cuba, facilitated by Cáritas, containing over 3,500 modules of food, hygiene products, and household items.
The Cuban state system had only 300 senior citizens' homes and 157 elderly care facilities in 2021, numbers that are clearly insufficient given the scale of the aging population.
In February of this year, the government formally acknowledged this shortcoming by authorizing non-state actors to open residences for the elderly, although the established rates are unaffordable for most of the population.
The cost of aging in a private residence in Cuba can exceed one thousand dollars per month at some facilities, an amount that is unattainable for those relying on pensions of less than 10 dollars a month, which makes initiatives like BETANIA —sustained by solidarity from abroad— one of the few real alternatives for the most vulnerable elderly in the island.
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