A video posted on Facebook by Father Leandro NaunHung, parish priest of San José Obrero parish in Santiago de Cuba, shows the touching moment when a child from the countryside receives a pair of boots and the simple joy that this gesture brings to those around him.
The recording, shared on social media this week, captures the scene in a natural way: the adults present try to put shoes on the little one, named Jesús or "Jesucito," ask him his shoe size, and celebrate that the boots fit him.
“Hey, you got lucky, Jesús,” one of the adults can be heard saying upon confirming that the shoes fit.
One detail reveals the magnitude of the need: someone notices that the boots are "for females," meaning they are for girls, which suggests they were donated without regard to gender because the urgent matter was to cover the child's feet.
Before putting it on, one of those present recalls that "we need to wash" the foot, a comment that goes unnoticed in the video but speaks volumes about the conditions in which these children from rural Cuba live.
Father NaunHung is a well-known figure in Santiago de Cuba for his social work and for documenting on social media the extreme poverty affecting rural communities on the island.
He runs a community kitchen in his parish that provides meals for vulnerable children and families, and just last week he reported the theft of cooking utensils from that kitchen, including the main pot, publicly committing to replace them: "We are going to get another pot. It's not easy."
The video of the boots is set against the backdrop of a humanitarian crisis that particularly affects children in rural areas of Cuba.
A pair of shoes in Cuba can cost as little as 15 dollars, equivalent to about 5,550 Cuban pesos at the informal exchange rate, while the typical monthly salary hovers around 3,700 pesos, an amount insufficient to cover basic needs such as footwear.
This priest has also documented other survival initiatives, such as collecting aluminum cans to generate income in rural communities in Santiago, and has highlighted extreme cases such as that of a mother who uses purslane leaves to prepare food.
The image of a child joyfully receiving a pair of second-hand boots is not new in Cuba. In September 2020, a boy from Pinar del Río went to school in flip-flops because he did not have shoes, and his story touched the hearts of thousands both on and off the island.
Six years later, the situation has not improved. In 2026, images of families in extreme poverty are still circulating on social media in provinces like Holguín, Pinar del Río, and Santiago de Cuba, where children have to wade through flooded roads to get to school and where a pair of boots can be, literally, a cause for celebration.
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