Disable children graduate from Secondary School in Havana
Seventeen disabled children from the Special School Solidarity with Panama said “official goodbye” on Friday night to the institution that, from a very young age, welcomed them and turned them into the good boys and girls, as they graduate from secondary school.
The graduation ceremony was attended as special guests by the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, and President Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
The principal of the school, Esther La Ochoa, the beloved Teté of all children, spoke about the youngsters:
You are children who leave your footprints; each of your achievements made us happy teachers. Always be worthy, keep your heads up, defend the values you learned in school during ten years and, above all, take care of the Cuban Revolution.
Teté reminded the Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro, when, thirty years ago and in the difficult times of the Special Period, he founded against all odds this school dedicated to disabled children who need the most support, so that none of them would be abandoned.
Six girls and 11 boys finish ninth grade and begin other paths in pre-university, polytechnic or under the protection of their families.
One of them is Daylín, the 15-year-old who a few months ago sent a letter to Raúl Castro inviting him to his birthday party. This time she wrote to him again and he gladly returned to school, a place that ─ he commented ─ always fills him with emotion.
Dances, songs, poems and the party that usually takes the Children’s Theater Company La Comenita to school made this graduation a time to remember.
There, the Army General congratulated the graduates for their efforts and invited them to continue studying. He told them about the encyclopedia 1,000 Questions and 1,000 Answers, prepared by Cuban academics, which he had sent to them shortly before as a gift.
Another joy of the night occurred when the General of the Army found Mabelita, that little girl who in her wheelchair delighted Cuba with her performances in La Colmenita.
Today she is 31 years old and has two university degrees: she is an art instructor and a psychologist. “What a great will and heart, I’m so happy to see you and hear from you,” he said before hugging her.
Then Raúl and Díaz Canel visited the institution’s gymnasium, where physiotherapist Lamilé Quintero explained about the exercises the students perform to correct their gait and showed them some of the equipment, including two new bicycles for cardiac patients.
There, the children exercise as part of the comprehensive care they receive in the school dreamed of by Fidel, which today is home for more than 170 beloved children.
(Taken from Granma in Spanish)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
