2017
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Date photo taken
10 September 2017
Country of origin
Cuba
Region
Latin America and Carribbean
Photo credit
MCC photo/Bonnie Klassen
Description
Deilly Perez and husband Yoel Balbusano, the pastoral couple in CaibarÃen, are pictured at their home the day after Hurricane Irma struck Cuba in September 2017. Deilly shared about the months after the hurricane: "We quickly realized that the community around us was entering into despair. There was no electricity. Most people had lost all or part of their houses. So we started to bring people together to share and to pray every day. I also got firewood and cooked big pots of food to share every day, since none of us could cook at our stoves. Two widows from the church stayed in our one-room house for a couple of weeks. Over time we received the resources we needed to purchase building materials to fix the houses. We haven't finished, but this isn't due to a lack of commitment or even a lack of funds; mostly the delay is because we have to wait until the government makes building materials available for purchase. But a group of volunteers from the church has been working with each family to repair what has been lost. Since I am small and light, they lift me up to get into some hard-to-reach places to put screws in the zinc roofing panels. I am small, but strong. People have re-gained hope. We still have some people in temporary arrangements, but many have said that what they have for a home now is even better than what they had before."
MCC partnered with the Brethren in Christ (BIC) Church and CCRD to repair irrigation systems, supply farmers with seeds and inputs, repair homes and provide emergency food packages in Cuba's Matanzas, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Havana and Las Tunas provinces. And, at the prison in Manzanillo, the BIC Church was granted permission to meet with inmates in small groups and share snacks or meals with them during the difficult weeks after the hurricane. (MCC photo/Bonnie Klassen)