Childhood in Cuba

by Luz Marina Fornieles Sánchez

January 2004

The devotion of Cuba and the Revolution to childhood is backed up by such outstanding results as the island’s infant mortality rate, which in 2004 was 5.8 per every one thousand live births – the lowest in all of Latin America. That result was also the best in Cuba’s recorded history, which for the past ten years experienced indicators that were once unthinkable even for nations of the so-called First World: 7.9 (1996); 7.2 (1997); 7.1 (1998); 6.4 (1999); 7.2 (2000); 6.2 (2001); 6.5 (2002) and 6.3 (2003).

The prioritized attention given to children on the island protect them from serious scourges that lacerate human dignity, such as armed conflicts, poverty, violence, terrorism, torture, pornography, prostitution, drugs, HIV/AIDS and death itself, which claims the lives of more than 13 million children under five.

These problems affect people living in the industrialized world as well: in the United States, for instance, a young person is killed by firearms every 92 minutes as a consequence of prevailing violence in that country, where other equally alarming statistics point to 13 children killed every day, while another six commit suicide and three others are abused.

In the world’s only superpower, the self-proclaimed champion of human rights, one of every six children has no food, according to a study conducted by Tufts University of Boston, Massachusetts.

The study on hunger and poverty revealed that many families in the United States have to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children. Equally alarming is the news in that regard provided by the depleted Latin American economies. Experts warn that over 100 million children and adolescents in the continent suffer the hardships imposed by poverty, while another 16 million have to work in order to survive. They represent 17 percent of the regional child population. The same sources indicated that of that total, five million one hundred thousand children are between the ages of 10 and 14.

Other staggering statistics: 20 million adolescents in Latin America have no access to secondary education and one million suffer sexual abuse directly or indirectly.

Also in Latin America, the average infant mortality rate is 43 for every one thousand live births in children under five, while it is 35 among those who have not yet reached 12 months, according to UNICEF. The United Nations Children’s Fund condemns the fact that 40 out of every 100 Latin Americans live in extreme poverty – and over half of these are minors.

A similar picture could have been found in Cuba before 1959, as was denounced in 1953 by then young lawyer Fidel Castro in his historic defense speech, known as "La Historia Me Absolverá” (History Will Absolve Me), when he said: “Death is the only way out of so much misery, and the State will certainly help them die. Ninety percent of children living in the Cuban countryside are eaten alive by parasites, which go from the ground into their bodies through the nails of their bare feet. Society is shocked by the news of a child being kidnapped or murdered, but remains totally indifferent to the mass murder of thousands of children, who die every year due to lack of resources, in their death throes, glassy-eyed, apparently looking into the distance as if asking God’s forgiveness for human selfishness and that divine punishment does not fall upon humanity.”

RADICAL SOCIAL CHANGES

The statement refers to a time, when 20 percent of the richest population on the Island received 58 percent of the incomes, while the poorest 20 percent received only two percent.

Twenty-four percent of the island’s active labor force was unemployed at that time and education was not considered a right, but a privilege: There were one million illiterates – one-sixth of the population – and only 56 percent of the children between the ages of six and 14 attended school.

The situation was even worse in the rural areas, where 61 percent of school-age children did not complete primary education, nor did they have access to health care. Only the profound social changes promoted by the Revolution over the past 46 years could put an end to such a dreadful state of affairs, giving way to a new situation, in which the youngest generations are the number one priority. It is because of the youth that here on the island we have defended hope since our new age began to dawn on January 1st, 1959.

It is frequently said – and with very good reason – that the small Caribbean island is like a huge school, given the outstanding achievements of its free education, which is comparable to developed nations.

The island’s schooling rate is 99 percent, while a total of 2,914,000 students are attending classes in the present academic year (2005-2006). Cuba’s educational advances led the island to be at the top of Latin America in terms of pre-school education: 89.9 percent of Cuban children in the 0-5 age group, that is to say a total of 868,121 minors, participate in educational activities – a record in Latin America.

Of those, 130,000 are enrolled in day-care centers, 146,000 in pre-school and the rest are involved in a program, developed by UNESCO, through which their parents receive orientation from educators and doctors in their respective neighborhoods.

The 1,124 day-care centers created nation-wide over the past 40 years benefit over 126,000 working mothers. The state budget earmarked for those centers surpasses 110 million Cuban pesos.

According to UNICEF’s statistics, Cuban school-age children are far more knowledgeable in mathematics than other Latin American children their age.

According to the same UN body, Cuba stands out because of the fact that since 1959, it has progressively established a national system of day-care centers and educational programs directed to children in their earliest infancy and in pre-school, which today comprises 98.3 percent of children under six.

Likewise, the Cuban State has some 30 homes for orphans up to 17 years of age. New, specialized centers have also been inaugurated to treat autistic children.

All this reaffirms the national commitment that there should not be any children without a school or teacher, nor one single citizen without high-quality medical attention, which is guaranteed to every Cuban on the island totally free-of-charge, even before they are born.

This should not take anyone by surprise, since here in Cuba people begin to receive medical attention while they are still in their mother’s womb, actually from the very moment his/her mother is diagnosed as pregnant.

While still recovering from the acute economic crisis of the 1990s, what is known here in Cuba as the Special Period – considered the most difficult moment of the Revolution – Cuba fulfilled far in advance many of the goals set for the year 2000 by the 1990 World Summit for Children.

Unlike other parts of the world, where the difficult economic situation negatively affects social programs and achievements, Cuba earmarks an ever larger portion of its national budget to health and education. In 2005, Cuba earmarked 4.1 billion Cuban pesos to the educational sector and another 2.35 billion to the health sector, representing an increase of 11.3 and 9.4 percent, respectively, compared to 2004.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS

It is obvious that these sectors continue to be prioritized as outstanding achievements of the Revolution.

As well, in the field of medicine, Cuba has won international recognition. Evidence of this is the above mentioned infant mortality rate – internationally considered an indicator of any nation’s well-being and development since it covers the population’s social, economic, biological, political, demographic and sanitary conditions.

Also in the field of health, Cuba stands out for the eradication of diseases such as polio, diphtheria, neonatal tetanus and meningitis, as well as the serious complications associated with congenital measles syndrome and meningoencefalitis posparotiditis.

Other diseases such as German measles, malaria, tetanus and mumps do not constitute health problems on the island. The list was further increased recently to include measles – this after eight years without a single case being reported on the island. Measles causes over one million deaths every year in other underdeveloped nations.

These successes are there for the world to see amidst hardships imposed by the lack of resources. Despite any difficulties that may exist, every Cuban child is immunized within their first year of life against 13 diseases, in some cases using vaccines produced on the island, such as Cuba’s vaccines against hepatitis B and hemophilic influenza type B.

This led UNICEF to publicly acknowledge that children born in Cuba are more likely to survive infancy than children born in other Latin American and Caribbean nations.

The World Health Organization, for its part, ranks Cuba as the top leader in terms of immunization through vaccination among 214 of the world’s nations.

The island’s policy, since 1959, has been to protect the people, particularly Cuban children. Over the more than four decades of US blockade against Cuba, the island tried hard to significantly alleviate the impact of such a hostile policy on the Cuban nation and people. It also managed to alleviate the impact of the economic recession on the population.

The US blockade, which was further tightened with the 1992 Torricelli Act and later, with the 1996 extraterritorial Helms-Burton Act, ranks as a flagrant violation of the political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Cuban people, including millions of children.

Experts worldwide have long agreed that the US hostile policy severely reduces Cuba’s access to essential medicine, school supplies, food, toys and other resources – a situation only alleviated thanks to the political will of the Revolution and also, to a certain extent, international solidarity with the Caribbean island.

However, and despite enormous sacrifices, Cuba has not let up in its determination to continue granting Cuban childhood the privileged condition they enjoy by right, so that human selfishness does not bring suffering and death to innocent children.

CUBAN CHILDREN FREE OF WORLD WIDE SCOURGES

900 thousand children die every month because of poverty: not one of them is cuban.

200 million children in the world sleep on the streets today. None of them is Cuban.

250 million children under 13 have to work in order to survive. None of them is Cuban.

More than one million children are forced into prostitution and tens of thousands have been victims of human organ trafficking. None of them is Cuban.

25 thousand children in the world die every day of measles, malaria, diphtheria, pneumonia and malnutrition. None of them is Cuban.

CONTRAST WITH THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT

600 million children grow up in Latin America in absolute poverty.

250 million children between 5 and 14 years of age have to work (30 million of them are Latin Americans).

130 million children in the world (60 percent of these girls) don’t go to school.

One out of every four children in the world is in danger and more than 11 million die every year of preventable causes.

The number of street children is estimated at over 200 million, half of whom are forced into prostitution every year.

Children who work or roam the streets are exposed to attacks by their employers, the public, authorities, pedophiles and all sorts of traffickers.

In Latin America alone, 60 thousand children die before reaching 5 years of age and two million never go to school, while 800 thousand others who do enter primary school have to give up to earn their living.

In 25 impoverished nations, a baby born today is very unlikely to reach 50 years of age, while a baby born in a rich nation will probably reach 78.

Some 100 million Latin American minors between the ages of 10 and 14 are very likely to get involved in criminal activities, armed conflicts, white-slave trade, drug trafficking and sex abuse, among other forms of violence.