CAMAGUEY.- Young people from Camagüey have taken to the streets and communities in recent weeks to express their support for the Cuban Revolution. Many others, on a daily basis, from their daily positions, or as volunteers in strategic tasks in front of the COVD-19, transform reality with their hands. Irsis Sánchez, Yadiana Estrada and Ricardo Rodríguez, future lawyers and doctors, respectively, do not rest in pursuit of being useful.
DOCTOR IN ADVANCE
From his native Senado, in Minas, Ricardo Rodríguez González thought of going out to study International Relations. Personal issues and the fact that that year the aptitude tests for the career were not carried out, made him discover, as he repeats from time to time, the human path of Medicine.
Today he is in his second year at the Carlos J. Finlay University of Medical Sciences, and like most of his classmates, Ricardo had to test himself sooner than he imagined. He did it in March 2020 when the first inquiries and he does it today for the second time in the Red Zone.
“I was part of the group that inaugurated the isolation center located at the Octavio de la Concepción y La Pedraja faculty. There we lived tense moments because it was not easy to convert student shelters into safe spaces and with all the sanitary conditions that were required. However, the sacrifice helped me learn and I began to value my future profession much more.
“Some do not understand why the decision of young people to take risks for efforts that are not remunerated. I have tried to explain that, but whoever does not experience the recovery of an old man or the smile of a girl when she tells you that when she grows up she wants to be a doctor like you, he will not understand. This is my way of putting my heart to Cuba, I say mine but it is that of many more ”.
Ricardo has been more than 14 days without seeing his family. Faced with the change in care protocols in isolation centers, he served his ten 24-hour guards with 72 hours of rest. And although getting the little green suit to fit his six-foot body still requires all of his ingenuity, his concerns go further.
“In here it is very easy to feel fear. You have it when at dawn they call you to raise a bottle of oxygen because a lack of air became severe or when a patient becomes complicated. I also had it that Sunday in which some disturbed the calm of our streets and we tried to provide it. In the country we are not used to this type of demonstration and it generated a feeling of fear but at the same time the desire to show that we did not feel identified with the violent actions of July 11. That night I finished my watch but I did not sleep.
“At dawn on Monday we went on foot to the Workers' Square with flags, banners and a tremendous emotional charge. We knew what we wanted and we went out to defend it. At that moment, as part of the town, the fear disappeared ”.
YADIANA ALWAYS AT THE FOREFRONT
Yadiana Estrada Mirabal, a fifth-year dentistry student at the Carlos J. Finlay medical university, entered the Red Zone for only 15 days; however, she speaks as one of his greatest and most rewarding challenges.
“They were difficult moments, but we knew how to take advantage of them well, we helped families, we learned from doctors and we shared our knowledge with those of younger years.
“When I left, I joined the observation process in the health intervention with Abdala in CDR No. 10 of the La Mascota district. At the moment I am in charge of coordinating the rotating system of the students incorporated to the control points and of those who are in command posts.
“We also continue to prepare for the state test through alternatives through social networks that we have designed together with the teachers. In these ways we have small study groups to solve exercises and share notes while the teachers also use it to clarify doubts ”.
She combines all of this with her responsibilities as an activist for the Federation of Cuban Women in the neighborhood, the same responsibilities that her mother Teresa instilled in her when they were still living in the Planta Mecánica neighborhood. Seeing her always in charge of every task on the block and knowing that she is loved by her neighbors is her greatest motivation to follow in her footsteps.
THE PRIVILEGE OF IRSIS
Also in the second year, but in the Law career of the University of Camagüey (UC) Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz is Irsis Sánchez Ortiz. Like other young people from the same education, this cheerful girl plays an important role in the health intervention that takes place in the municipality with the Abdala vaccine. A good part of the data from the Rodolfo Ramírez Esquivel comprehensive polyclinic passes through her hands.
“A few months ago from Medical Sciences we were asked to collaborate to support the investigations and select the students who could dedicate themselves to the task. They called me to coordinate these studies at the polyclinic known as PIRRE (Rodolfo Ramírez Esquivel) and I was there for several weeks until the process began. Then I did not want to miss the opportunity to continue helping and I got into digitization.
“We work every day, almost always after noon, although the schedule itself depends on the amount of data that we have to include. Rotations have been designed to rest, but I did not want to go out. I feel well accompanied because a large number of students and teachers have joined us.
“When I collaborate for the good of others, I feel useful. I am sure that there are those who do not give relevance to our work, but I am part of a unique and historical process. Doing what we have to do in every bit and doing it well is the only way to have a better country and to help it as it really should. I don't think that throwing stones will achieve the same thing ”.
Although time is almost out and the pandemic has transformed her days, Irsis does not give up sharing with her friends, the same ones who know that her "dwarf" is one of the indispensable ones. To her dances when she is alone in front of the mirror at home, she added remote study and data digitization. In all of them she stands out. Perhaps her passion for helping was taken from her mother, who preferred to put the holidays aside because she had to collaborate at UC or from her father, who sits near her in the laboratory of computing to process data.
These are just two of the many stories we could tell. Two stories that speak of sacrifices, fatigue, fears, but also teaching, efforts to build a better Cuba, humanity. Why not to have, like Irsis and Ricardo, the privilege of feeling useful, of becoming the true youth of change on a daily basis.
These are just three of the many stories that we could tell, stories that speak of sacrifices, of fatigue, of fears, but also of teaching, of efforts to build a better Cuba, of humanity. Boys anda girls like Irsis, Yadiana and Ricardo take advantage of the privilege of feeling useful, of becoming the true youth of change on a daily basis.
- Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez