By Ayose Naranjo
HAVANA, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Yarnelys Bec Abalela arrived at the Abel Santamaría School for the Blind in Havana when she was just 3 years old. At that time, a congenital cataract threatened her vision.
After completing ninth grade, she enrolled in a higher-level special education program and then returned to help children with a condition similar to her own.
“Thanks to what I learned at this center, I was able to become a teacher,” said Bec, who has worked at Abel Santamaria for 21 years and is currently a fifth-grade teacher and therapist.
Now, massive power outages and a lack of everything from eyeglasses to Braille paper mean she needs to confront a whole new set of challenges.
Cuba’s already inefficient state-run economy — long plagued by shortages — has descended this year into a full-blown crisis in the wake of hardened sanctions and a fuel blockade by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Thousands of students in special education schools across Cuba are suffering fuel, electricity and transportation shortfalls.
But the schools are improvising, and keeping going. Many have reduced in-person classes, introduced virtual schooling, or installed solar panels.
At the Abel Santamaría school, enrollment remains at 44 students, all blind or vision-impaired students from Havana. Though the school maintains transportation to and from its facility, the fuel shortage has forced it to reduce in-person classes to four days a week. On Fridays, students work from home on exercises assigned by their teachers.
“Receiving instruction from a family member, at home, is not the same as in person, with trained teachers,” said school director Suramis Rodríguez.
Power outages, which often exceed 18 hours a day in the capital, pose an additional challenge in a school where lighting is crucial for students with low vision. During blackouts, teachers move the children closer to the windows or relocate activities to courtyards and hallways to take advantage of natural light, Rodriguez said.
The US says the now nine-month fuel blockade is necessary to upend Cuba’s government, which it calls inept and corrupt. The United Nations has called the blockade illegal and a violation of the human rights of all Cubans.
Despite the challenges, Cuba keeps the doors open at 330 special education schools, according to government statistics.
“In the midst of this situation, this is still the best place to provide these children with the tools they need for their lives,” said Bec.
(Reporting by Ayose Naranjo, editing by Dave Sherwood and Rosalba O’Brien)
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