Almost a year ago, Yoel Alejandro Pérez Serrano, a resident of Guamuta, near the Sanctuary of El Cobre in Santiago de Cuba, did what many wished for and few dared to do: he confronted Miguel Díaz-Canel face to face. Days had passed since the impact of Hurricane Melissa, and numerous families were still neglected. This young man denounced the lack of assistance for the victims and the challenges faced by a community forced to confront their misfortune with their own resources. His intervention broke the comfortable script of an official visit.
The dictator appeared uncomfortable. In front of him was a citizen speaking from the suffering of his neighbors. Yoel insisted on the needs of the community and the difficult conditions under which the doctors worked, even when dealing with dengue patients. Díaz-Canel ultimately referred the solutions to the authorities of the People's Power. But official promises do not feed a child, do not provide medicine for a sick person, nor do they restore a roof to someone who has lost it.
Almost a year later, in the face of persistent neglect, Yoel decided to take on the responsibility, along with his neighbors, of seeking solutions independent of the authoritarian state. He began by opening a community kitchen for vulnerable individuals: elderly people without enough resources, children suffering from malnutrition, and entire families that barely manage to feed themselves. He also offered his skills to those who cannot afford a barber, providing free haircuts to children and the elderly. Each meal and each service represent a tangible relief for people who have been neglected for too long.
Currently, accompanied by dozens of neighbors, he is working to prepare a plot of land for the establishment of a small medical office. The goal is to enable a volunteer doctor to provide basic care to a community that lacks its own clinic, where many sick individuals struggle to find or afford the medications they need. The project still requires effort and resources, but it already reflects a fundamental decision: to come together to protect life. Where power amasses excuses, citizens are beginning to build solutions with their own hands and through the solidarity of other Cubans.
With the support of the Unión Patriótica de Cuba and the Assembly of Resistance, within the Save Cuba campaign, Yoel demonstrates how much can be achieved through will, courage, and love for others. This campaign also includes the Opponents for a New Republic Movement, the Democracy Movement, and other organizations committed to the freedom and well-being of our people. Yoel and his collaborators, from a position supportive of democracy and human rights, turn their convictions into everyday service.
In the Zamorana neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba, we find another example. Political prisoner Maikel Mediaceja Ramos, along with his family, neighbors, and collaborators, continues to provide food, medicine, and other care to more than a thousand people living in extreme poverty. They do this amid harassment, threats, and persecution by the political police. The repression against those distributing food reveals the priorities of a regime that views independent solidarity as a threat.
These efforts need to continue expanding throughout Cuba. Similar work is already being carried out in Havana, with activists from the Opponents for a New Republic Movement, the Democracy Movement, and UNPACU, as well as in Bayamo and occasionally in a municipality in Holguín. In Guantánamo, we maintained a dining facility for several days that served over a hundred people. The lack of sufficient personnel and resource limitations forced us to temporarily suspend it. We want to restore that service and increase our capacity to help.
We need more activists, collaborators, and volunteers willing to dedicate time and effort to those who are suffering the most. We need food, medicine, and resources, but we also need hands to cook, organize, accompany, and listen. Behind every need, there is a face: the elderly person weakened by hunger, the sick individual without treatment, the child growing up malnourished, the mother who does not know what she will put on the table tomorrow. None should be reduced to a number or become accustomed to living without hope.
Our homeland is undergoing a devastating economic, social, and humanitarian crisis. In the face of this, immediate assistance and the work for freedom are inseparable responsibilities. Feeding a person today is urgent; building a country where they can live with dignity is essential. We want a Cuba where helping is a respected right, where no one has to thank those in power for what is rightfully theirs as citizens, and where the initiative of neighbors finds opportunities to prosper.
The campaign Save Cuba invites good Cubans, both on the island and abroad, to join these humanitarian projects and engage in civic, political, and spiritual action for national liberation and reconstruction. Yoel, Maikel, and many fellow countrymen are showing a way: overcoming fear, organizing solidarity, and serving. Let us build together, starting now, the homeland "with everyone and for the good of everyone" dreamed of by José Martí.
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