An eight-year-old Cuban girl from Bayamo named Lía, who suffers from chronic respiratory illnesses, is surviving in conditions that the Cuban regime is unable to remedy.
At this moment, she has gone more than 50 days without a drop of water, with an empty and rusty refrigerator, and her only toys are dolls rescued from the trash that she sews clothes for herself.
His case was reported on Facebook by the Cuban journalist and activist Guillermo Rodríguez Sánchez, who coordinates solidarity campaigns for families in critical situations on the Island from Mexico.
The call for help did not come from the mother herself, Lariatne Gamboa, but from a neighbor who occasionally brings them a meal and who pleaded for assistance on their behalf.
"It embarrasses him not to be able to do more for this cheerful girl and her very determined mother; he is ashamed of everything, he is ashamed that such good people endure so much misery," wrote Rodríguez Sánchez about the neighbor who alerted others to the situation.
"Let no one come to embellish it; having nothing to eat and lacking the means to find proper food, even if you work, is the worst of miseries," he emphasized.
The activist described the inside of the family's refrigerator as "a mass of sludge, rust, crusts from endlessly unfinished freezing cycles, and food hastily left to rot between blackouts."
The photos confirm that picture: the empty appliance, with rusty grates and hardly a couple of containers with no visible contents.
"Just like Lía and her mother, there are thousands of mothers and daughters in Cuba," acknowledged Rodríguez Sánchez, who in previous campaigns raised over 215,000 pesos in 24 hours for a family in Júcaro.
Those who wish to contribute can do so through the BPA card 9238 1299 7955 8725, in the name of Verona Bonce, as Lariatne Gamboa does not have a bank account.
The contact mobile number in Cuba is 59659518. Those who wish to communicate directly with the mother can call +53 55056528.
For shipments from abroad, Rodríguez Sánchez coordinates cash delivery directly to the home through his Messenger profile, with photographic evidence of the delivery.
"Let's see if amidst all this desolation and hunger, we can nourish even a little the innocent spirit of a girl who has not experienced the wonderful and simple moment of receiving a toy," wrote the activist, who also specifically requests a new doll for Lía.
The case of this girl reflects a systemic crisis that the regime neither acknowledges nor addresses.
According to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, 89% of Cuban families live in extreme poverty, with an average salary of just 13 dollars a month.
More than 100,000 Cuban children do not receive daily milk, a figure acknowledged by the Ministry of Food Industry itself, and 48.5% of students aged six to eleven do not receive food at school, according to the World Food Programme.
On the other hand, the water crisis that Lía and her mother are facing is not an isolated incident. In Bayamo, prolonged blackouts render the hydraulic pumps useless, and almost three million Cubans are suffering from water shortages without regular access to the resource. A private water truck costs up to 20,000 Cuban pesos in the region, an amount unreachable for most.
The Electric Company of Granma admitted in June that it was only generating a third of the energy that the province needs, with circuits accumulating over 45 consecutive hours without service. This energy collapse is the backdrop to the misery that Lía endures.
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