Two years after Hurricane Ian, UNICEF continues providing support in Pinar del Río
This photo essay shares testimonials from people who are grateful for the support they received
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During these two years, UNICEF has helped Pinar del Río province to recover in sectors including education, health and hygiene, which are vital for the population and especially for the children and adolescents of the communities affected the most by Hurricane Ian.
Financial contributions have been provided by the Government of Canada, the Basque Agency for Development Cooperation, the Xunta de Galicia, the Governments of the Canary Islands, Murcia and the Balearic Islands, the Spanish Committee of UNICEF and the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.
This photo essay shares testimonials of people who are grateful for the support they received, not only to recover some of their most sensitive material losses, but also because knowing they are not alone gives them the confidence to move forward.
The impact of Hurricane Ian in 2022 throughout the westernmost part of Cuba affected 3.2 million persons, including more than 630,000 children and 75,000 children with disabilities. Nearly 1,000 schools were damaged, limiting access to education for 139,000 children.
UNICEF assistance reached several municipalities in the province, namely, Pinar del Río, Viñales, Consolación del Sur, San Juan y Martínez, Guane and San Luis. Healthcare centres were provided with water tanks, medical supplies and equipment. At the same time, schools were given blankets, roofing tiles, as well as educational and recreational kits for early childhood.
UNICEF assists the most affected populations and provides support in recovering from losses and damage (roofs, water supply and storage systems, educational and recreational materials, personal hygiene products).
The sports kit has been very useful for delivering better classes
Antonio Mesa Yaber is a Physical Education teacher at the Camilo Cienfuegos Elementary School in the Buena Vista District in San Luis. His four decades of promoting sports have shown him the power of physical activity in children’s education and the role it can play in socio-emotional recovery after a disaster.
After Hurricane Ian in September 2022, the municipality suffered extensive damage. Tony, as his colleagues and students call him, recalls that out of the 39 schools in the territory, 38 were affected. His school was one of them.
“Almost the entire structure was damaged: roofs, windows, doors and furniture were badly damaged. As a result, new spaces had to be reinvented to continue the school year. Somehow, the whole community was involved in transforming offices, doorways and homes into classrooms.”
Physical education classes also had to be moved to another place because the usual space had rubble and debris from fallen trees.
From his pedagogical experience, he assures that physical exercise, outdoor activities and interaction with peers are necessary for the full development of children and adolescents.
To favour the development and insertion of the students after such an extreme experience, UNICEF Cuba donated a recreation kit with sports equipment and accessories, including balls to play volleyball, football and basketball, as well as chess sets with boards, skipping rope and volleyball nets.
“This kit has been handy, as it has allowed us to encourage the practice of chess and helps us teach better classes with quality sports equipment,” says Antonio Mesa.
At the Camilo Cienfuegos School, with an enrollment of 102 children from pre-school to sixth grade, interaction is encouraged in playful and educational activities, without exclusion due to gender, skin colour, disability or any other condition. UNICEF brought the Mídete Festival for nonviolence in children and adolescents to this educational centre.
The event brought together teachers, students and families from the community to learn more about respectful parenting, children’s rights, responsible use of social networks and prevention of gender-based violence and sexual abuse.
Tony was one of the most active promoters of this Festival, which became another way to support school and community recovery. Having a safer space not only has to do with roofs and other physical structures; it is also about building a space that can be declared free from any form of violence.
“I thank the whole UNICEF team for their constant support. It has been more than just hugs and words. Coming here and bringing such necessary and useful things for us is more than enough.”
UNICEF prioritizes the rapid return of children and adolescents to the classroom for learning continuity after a disaster situation. In Pinar del Río, 67 schools affected by Hurricane Ian were recipients of support for the restoration of roofs and sanitary infrastructure.
Rehabilitation of drinking water supply services in communities in Pinar del Río
María Félix Rodríguez Carreño has been the head of the Well Field at the Espinela Troncoso Pumping Station in the municipality of Pinar del Río for 26 years.
Her duty consists in attending several water pipelines on the road to La Coloma. She also supervises, controls and explores some 14 wells. She has to monitor “from the technical state to the existing working conditions for the workers who operate those pipes.”
“The water coming from the springs benefits more than 40 percent of the population of the main municipality”, she says with the same pride that she speaks of her role in leading a team of mostly men. Women have gradually begun to join this kind of work, though.
Maria knows the importance of maintaining the vitality of the water supply and distribution service.
Having generator sets minimises the possible effects of a failure of the electrical system. After Hurricane Ian, it was first necessary to confirm that the wells were not contaminated in order to resume pumping. The quality of the water guarantees the health of the people who consume it. Therefore, “the chlorinated treatment of the water is fundamental. This certifies its use and quality”, she says.
In 2024, two water pumps donated by UNICEF were installed in the province. One was placed in La Coloma and the other in the municipality of San Luis. This action benefited some 8,800 people. María is grateful for the gesture and evaluates the quality of the donation. In this regard, she said: “They work very well, they are very quiet, they don't make noise and they are very powerful. We thought they wouldn't step up to the challenge, but yes, they do.”
UNICEF has raised $2.3 million to restore safe water services in communities and provide water storage facilities for families and health institutions.
The healthcare system at the service of children
Dr. Yamila Salgado Caraballo is the head of the neonatology service in the province of Pinar del Río. She proudly speaks of the staff she works with: highly qualified specialists, nurses and residents, and most of them with several years of experience. The adversities left by Hurricane Ian have not deterred them from their mission: to save the lives of the babies who require intensive care.
“The main risks for newborns are pre-term deliveries and low birth weight. Primary healthcare services and the mother-and-child hospital are coordinated through various actions. Those actions include the existence of the Human Milk Bank, which allows the feeding of babies who, for some reason, cannot be breastfed directly. In addition, there is the skin-to-skin service, which has provided good results for the successful recovery of low-birth-weight babies,” explains Yamila.
Dr. Salgado acknowledges UNICEF’s contribution to these mother-and-child health strategies and services. “The support to the province has been going on for several years and in a very significant way in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Thanks to UNICEF, we have quality incubators vital for newborns who have difficulties at birth.”
Yamila values the permanent collaboration and the relationship of respect and closeness that has been built through phone calls, training and exchanges that take into consideration the needs of the territory.
As part of UNICEF’s response to Hurricane Ian, local capacities for maternal and child health care and prevention of malnutrition in pregnant women and children under 2 years of age have been strengthened in the seven most affected municipalities of Pinar del Rio. Basic hygiene and safe water storage conditions were improved for 211,920 persons and 44 health centres (including 39 community medical centres).
Life always brings challenges and opportunities
Nancy Padrón Gómez, 70 years old, now lives at kilometre 14 of the road to La Coloma in the municipality of Pinar del Río. In the calmness of her new home, she remembers with great sadness those days of destruction that followed Hurricane Ian.
It was another blow to her life. “The last few years have been difficult,” she says, her voice cracked as she listed: raising two grandchildren after the death of her daughter, the partial loss of their home due to damage from a previous cyclone, the death of her parents and, more recently, her husband's illness....
With tears in her eyes, she says she has been able to face such fatalities because of her willpower and because she has never felt alone or helpless. “Life always brings challenges and opportunities. Today, I enjoy my new home with happiness and immeasurable gratitude to those who have helped us. I have water tanks, new mattresses and other things that we received through donations from UNICEF and other institutions and governments that have practiced solidarity with us.
Perhaps what comforts her most is the joy of Mélani Contreras, her 15-year-old granddaughter, who was able to finish high school at a facility closer to home, and study for the entrance exams for pre-university education at the Instituto Vocacional de Ciencias Exactas "Federico Engels" (Vocational Institute of Exact Sciences.
