SEVENTEEN students at the Solidarity with Panama Special Education School, on the evening of June 28, “officially” bid farewell to the institution they have attended since they were small – the school where they became young people of goodwill, concluding their intermediate education. Participating in the celebration as special guests were the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, and the President of Cuba’s Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
When it looked like rain would dampen the festivities, the sky cleared and the school’s principal, Esther La O Ochoa, the children’s much-loved Teté, rose to speak to the young men and women who arrived at the Solidaridad con Panamá at only four years of age. This is a “See you later,” she said to the graduates, not a definitive goodbye, since we will always be in touch.
You are children who have left your mark, she continued, not hiding her emotion, we were happy teachers every time you reached a new milestone. Always be honorable, hold your heads high, defend the values you learned here at this school over ten years, and above all, take care of the Revolution.
Teté recalled how Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro, 30 years ago during the hard times of the Special Period, founded the school to care for children who needed the most support, to abandon no one.
Evidence of the constant attention provided here can be seen in the six young women and 11 boys who have completed the ninth grade and are beginning a new era in pre-university or technical-professional high schools, or alongside their families. One of them is Daylín, the 15-year-old who wrote Raúl a letter several months ago inviting him to her birthday party. She wrote him again on this occasion, and he was happy to return to the school, a place which always fills him with emotion, he commented.
Dance, song, poetry, and the party the school traditionally enjoys with La
Comenita children’s theater company, made this graduation unforgettable. Raúl congratulated the graduates for their efforts and called on them to continue their studies, commenting on the encyclopedia they had previously sent him as a gift:
1000 Preguntas y 1000 Respuestas, written by Cuban academics.
During the celebration, also attended by Roberto Morales Ojeda a vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla; Minister of Education Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella, and other leaders, Raúl conversed with a group of students who will move to new special schools in Santa Clara and Santiago, “to be closer to home,” promising to visit them when he was in these parts of the country.
Another joyous moment for the Army General was his meeting with Mabelita, among guests at the event, the girl in a wheel chair who delighted audiences in her performances with La Colmenita. She is now 31, and with her two university degrees works as an arts instructor and psychologist. What willpower and heart, Raúl exclaimed, adding how happy he was to see her and hear how she was doing, before giving her a hug.
Later he and Díaz Canel visited the school’s gymnasium, where physical therapist Iamilé Quintero explained exercises done with students to correct their gait, as well as equipment available, including new bicycles for children with heart problems. Activities in the gym are part of the comprehensive attention children receive at the school, Fidel’s dream that today is home to more than 170 much-loved children.
