Although it has been a few months since Dayamí Abad in Granma, Yanetsy Acosta and Yaquelín Pérez in Villa Clara received the keys to their new homes, their voices break when they talk about their "casitas."
Dayamí, mother of four children, three of whom are minors and live under her care, insists that her life took a 180-degree turn after receiving a subsidy to repair and enlarge the small room where she lived with her large family.
"I’m a cleaning assistant at the Ideal Market in Siboney and, before the monetary re-ordering, I earned only 225 pesos. With that salary and my husband's, we would never have been able to build a masonry house like this,” the mother reports, while proudly showing off the two-story home.
Yanetsy and Yaquelín express similar satisfaction, saying that "destiny smiled on them," December 29 last year, when they were finally able to move into their three-bedroom homes, with living room, eat-in kitchen, bathroom and a small patio, where they can provide for their children free of worries.
Yanetsy, for example, has four children, and the youngest has cerebral palsy. "I was an extra living in my father's house, without a minimum of conditions there; but thanks to the interest municipal authorities in Santa Clara now I have my own house, where I feel very comfortable."
Yaquelín, on the other hand, is the mother of three little ones. Sandor, the youngest at six years of age, is autistic and also suffers cerebral problems. "My life was an ordeal before I received this house. Imagine, I lived in a very small space for so many people. Now I don't, they gave me a real house. I will never be able to repay the Revolution for what was done for me," she says gratefully.
These three women are among the 5,735 across the country, since 2019, who have benefited from the subsidy program for mothers with three or more children under 17 years of age, which, in addition to being humane, is key to stimulating an increase in Cuba’s birth rate, today one the countries with the highest levels of population aging in Latin America and the Caribbean.
For these reasons, two years into its implementation, the program remains a high priority for the Cuban government, despite the complexities faced by the national economy, exacerbated by the global crisis emerged during the covid-19 pandemic and the tightening of the U.S. economic blockade. Despite the enormous effort, adequate progress has not been made. In fact, during regular reviews, Party First Secretary and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, has insisted on the need to speed-up processing of these cases and provide the follow-up they require until the work is completed, since reality has shown that, on many occasions, progress has been slow in the execution of projects which have been assigned financing.
Although the program began in 2019, it was not until February 18 of this year that Agreement 9009 was approved by the Council of Ministers, with the objective of stimulating the birth rate. The measure authorizes municipal Administration Councils to prioritize the allocation of housing and financial resources for the construction, rehabilitation, expansion or remodeling of housing for mothers, fathers or guardians who have three or more children under 17 years of age under their guardianship or care.
The general director of Housing, Vivian Rodríguez Salazar, offered Granma only a few statistics on the program's performance, but they are enough to illustrate how much remains to be done in this noble endeavor of building roofs... and dreams.
In Figures (as of December 2020)
- 42,512 mothers with three or more children under the age of 17 identified nationwide
- 5,348 mothers in need of housing or constructive work
- 2,029 mothers benefited during the year
- 5,658 construction actions were completed by different means (financing allocated by the state budget, subsidies and executed by the state plan).
-28,679 properties to be completed or awarded to families in this category in 2021, via different means
- Territories showing the lowest completion rate in 2020 were the Isle of Youth (11), Matanzas (26), Artemisa (34) and Granma (38).
- More significant progress made in Holguín (339), Santiago de Cuba (296), Guantánamo (293), Pinar del Río (239), Villa Clara (133) and Sancti Spíritus (116)
In addition to resources, sensitivity is needed
Despite the negative impact of covid-19 in the country, Dayamí Abad's house was one of 26 completed last year in Granma, via subsidies, to which another 14 were added, granted by the state plan, ten less than those planned for the program.
Yesser Izaguirre Ojeda, director of Housing in the province, said that at the end of 2020, 4,821 mothers with three or more children had been identified in the province, of which 3,846 require construction on their properties.
"The municipalities that made the most progress last year were Pilón, with seven housing units delivered, and Buey Arriba, with nine subsidies, while the coastal territory of Media Luna was farther behind, not having completed any works," Izaguirre said.
Among the causes of these problems are limited availability of resources including steel, lighting, bathroom fixtures and cement, in addition to delays in the local production of materials, explained Michel Tejeda Acuña, coordinator of Government Objectives and Programs in Granma, who additionally identified limited fuel supplies and electricity as issues that affected the production of cement aggregates in the territory.
Along with these issues, he acknowledged that there were also organizational problems, including inadequate follow-up of these cases by the Housing department´s technical staff, as well as shortcomings in the local production of materials, in which technology and scientific knowledge can be better utilized.
In his opinion, more use can be made of clay in terms construction materials, as well as other variants to modify the projects.
At total of 58 homes for mothers with three or more children are planned for 2021, presenting a challenge that requires consistent attention if the program is to make the turn-around needed.
In the case of Villa Clara, the situation is no different, according to María del Carmen González Otero, director of Housing in the province, who reported that 1,827 mothers with three or more children have construction needs in the province, for whom a solution is being sought, either through the granting of subsidies for the building of basic housing units and rehabilitations, or through the construction of state housing.
When the program began in 2019, Villa Clara identified more than 132 mothers living in inadequate housing; but, as in the entire country, problems have emerged, González said.
Last year, for example, plans were made to resolve the construction problems of 345 mothers, 35 through the state channel and the rest with subsidies, a figure that, for various reasons, reached only 264.
With total transparency, the numbers reflect that, in two years, of the 1,827 mothers identified with an unfavorable situation, only 374 received subsidies, and the state provided another 61 dwellings, showing how much more momentum the program needs, because behind every delay, be it due to a lack of resources, bureaucracy or indifference, there is a family waiting.
If goals set for the year are to be met, to support 372 mothers in Villa Clara, recurring obstacles and impediments in housing-related processes must be eliminated immediately, here and around the country, to arm ourselves, particularly local authorities, with greater sensitivity and consistency in control of the program, among the most humane the country has undertaken.
