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A Cuban mother shared on Facebook a heart-wrenching testimony that summarizes the daily reality of millions of families on the island: her young daughter crying from hunger while she struggled to light wet wood to cook, without electricity all day long.
"With my little girl crying because she's hungry. I’ve tried to light the firewood to cook, but it’s been wet since yesterday and won’t catch," the woman wrote in her post, which circulated widely on social media.
The account accurately depicts the exhausting cycle that Cubans endure: “We spend the whole day waiting for electricity. It comes on for a few minutes and then it’s gone again. These are very difficult moments that many Cuban families are experiencing every day.”
The testimony comes amid the worst electrical crisis Cuba has faced in decades. This week, the Electric Union reported deficits of up to 2,040 MW during peak hours, with simultaneous outages affecting 68% of the national electrical system.
The inability to cook with electricity or gas has driven more than nine million Cubans to turn to coal, firewood, and improvised stoves, precisely the situation described by this mother.
In some areas of Havana, outages lasted 20 to 22 hours daily throughout May; in certain municipalities, interruptions reached up to 50 hours.
The impact on children’s nutrition is devastating. According to the Food Monitor Program, in April 2026, 96.91% of the Cuban population lacked adequate access to food, and 33.9% of households had at least one member who went to bed hungry in the previous 30 days.
UNICEF reports that 9% of Cuban children under five years old suffer from severe nutritional deprivation, and that 48.5% of students aged six to eleven do not receive meals or snacks at school.
The UN warned in May that due to power outages.
In light of the magnitude of the crisis, the Ministry of Education moved the end of the school year to the period between June 15 and June 30 due to the energy emergency.
Similar testimonials to that of this mother —with crying children, wet firewood, and endless waits for electricity— have gone viral repeatedly on social media since 2025, reflecting a reality that the regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel has been unable to change.
Despite the suffering, the woman found in faith her only support: "Today I choose to lift my gaze to heaven and worship the King of kings and Lord of lords. For when everything seems impossible, God still has the final word."
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