Iris Maiken Hidalgo Rodríguez, a 31-year-old single mother from Cuba, lives with her three young children in a dwelling that a content creator described as "uninhabitable for any human being," without assistance from the State and without hope, according to a video posted on Instagram.
The case was documented by the account "Meli creando con el corazón," which visits Cuban families in situations of extreme vulnerability. The narrator explained that the State social worker "took away their checkbook and hasn't visited them in a long time," leaving the family completely helpless.
Iris suffers from hypothyroidism, iron deficiency anemia, and is a carrier of sickle cell disease, a hereditary genetic condition. Two of her three children—David and Brian—are also carriers and experience chronic allergies, frequent colds, and have suffered from pneumonias caused by dust and humidity in their home.
The house has broken electrical wires and irregular access to water. Repairing the cistern would cost between 4,000 and 5,000 Cuban pesos, an amount beyond the family's reach. "I can't do it. Where am I going to get that money from?" Iris said in the video.
To make ends meet, the mother sells coffee, sweets, and handmade crafts, and occasionally cleans other people's houses. "When it's just cleaning, it's two hundred pesos; if it's organizing and cleaning, which takes more time, they give me five hundred for a morning," she explained. She does not have a steady job.
The youngest son, David, sleeps with his mother. Brian and the girl sleep in another part of the house. The children's clothes are old and torn; their grandmother keeps the little bit of decent clothing outside the home to protect it from the deterioration of the place.
Iris acknowledged that she had "even lost hope." "What can I say, God is the only one who gives me strength, at least to survive," she stated. She added, "That's how I try to survive, what else can I do? Otherwise, I can't."
The case is not isolated. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights estimated in 2025 that 89% of Cubans live in extreme poverty and 72% face food insecurity. The World Food Programme reported in May 2026 that 48.5% of Cuban children aged six to eleven do not receive any food or school snacks.
Households led by single women are the most vulnerable to multidimensional poverty in Cuba, according to the same organization. The housing deficit exceeds 900,000 homes based on official figures, and similar cases have been documented in several provinces of the country, highlighting a national pattern of state abandonment.
The creator of the video stated that she plans to help twenty Cuban families in similar situations within a month. "It's a bit labor-intensive, but I swear with a lot of patience and love we will achieve it," she promised.
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