José Daniel is moving into a new home after completing his stay at the children's home for children without parental care in the neighboring municipality of Colombia.
Jobabo, Las Tunas.- At first glance, the four rooms of his home in the capital of Jobabo don't seem like much, although others might say otherwise: a living room measuring no more than 4 square meters; a kitchen of roughly the same size, equipped with a countertop with fine ceramic tiles and a shiny stainless-steel sink. In the dining room, a table and four chairs made of bright white metal tubes. Just a few steps away, the bedroom, with a large bed and navy-blue sheets, all completely new.
Every object in sight here is the result of the generosity of revolutionary institutions, local entrepreneurs, or ordinary citizens. From the shiny induction stove and multipurpose electric pot to the other kitchen utensils and every piece of furniture, even the modest decorations that are beginning to adorn the prefabricated walls of this house of fiber cement gutters, which was once an office and, long before that, a school.
José Daniel is no saint. The social workers in the municipality of Jobabo who look after him almost full-time know this. Yes, because finding the right path in life is not easy when everything is wrong from the beginning.
This young man, who will soon turn 18 and begin his working life as a skilled laborer, has the bare minimum he needs to carve out his own future. It will not be easy, because the ghosts of the past and contemporary temptations lurk around him.
In his cautious silence around strangers, he bears the marks of someone who has lived through a difficult childhood that no one deserves. Caring for him is, above all, an act of selflessness, reflecting a humanism that, even though enshrined in law, should not be left solely to those whose job it is to exercise it. What has been done for José Daniel is also a reflection of what it means to reach out, without naivety clouding judgment, but rather investing in the best potential of each individual..
