Arianelis Ramírez, a Cuban mother, posted a video on Facebook in which she pleads for guidance on how to apply for a humanitarian visa to take her daughter Sara, a child with cerebral palsy, brain injuries, and spasticity in all four limbs, out of the country.
"We can no longer endure in this country," Arianelis asserts in the reel, which has garnered over 14,000 views and 1,338 reactions.
The mother describes in detail the impact of the prolonged blackouts on her daughter's health: food spoils, the girl can't sleep due to the heat, she wakes up covered in rashes and arrives exhausted to her rehabilitation sessions the next day.
"There have been many hours without electricity, many hours. These children need special attention, care, hygiene, and their diapers need to be washed daily," says Arianelis, who asks anyone who knows the necessary procedures to contact her privately.
Sara's situation illustrates the drama faced by Cuban families with children who rely on electricity for their basic care, amid the worst electrical crisis in recent Cuban history, with a generation deficit nearing 2,000 MW during peak hours against a demand of 3,200 MW.
Power outages exceed 20 hours a day in provinces such as Granma, Holguín, and Matanzas, and the national electrical system has collapsed on seven occasions in the last 18 months, including a general blackout on March 16, 2026 that left the entire island without electricity for 29 hours.
Arianelis is not the first mother to report this situation. Last June, Ileana Legón Pereira, from Ciego de Ávila, warned that outages lasting more than 22 hours prevented her from preparing the blended food that her son Christopher, who is eight years old and has cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, and severe autism, depends on.
Arianelis herself had documented her ordeal weeks earlier in another video, cooking on an improvised stove during a blackout while she described how Sara cried, drenched in sweat, as the charge on the fans ran out.
The impact of the crisis on children's health is devastating: the infant mortality rate in Cuba has doubled to 9.9 per 1,000 births, more than 11,000 children's surgeries have been postponed, and 3,000 minors are facing delays in vaccinations.
In November 2025, little Nabila passed away due to complications from cerebral palsy and a lack of access to the medication Clobazam, a case that shocked the Cuban community both on and off the island.
Arianelis concludes her appeal with a request that encapsulates the exhaustion of thousands of families: "All I ask for is a decent life for Sara, a decent life. May she be able to improve her quality of life."
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