A great gesture of solidarity is taking place in Cuba in order to promote fellowship among Cubans, and bring light where darkness has once been planted. This undisputed humanitarian gesture by The Ladies in White is called “Extending Our Hands” and is a community service program that aims to assist Cuban children in need at the community level. The program is currently taking root in homes and in public spaces such as neighborhood streets and city parks.
The project launched recently in the Havana headquarters of the Ladies in White. The first in a series of monthly events, which at the September launch involved 23 children between 5 and 11 years old, featured music, cake, soft drinks and other delicious confections for the kids. The Ladies in White also gave away crayons, backpacks, scissors, erasers , notebooks , socks, pencils, pencil sharpeners, coloring books , rulers, semicircles , crayons and other necessary school supplies to local children at both the Ladies in White home and nearby Trillo Park. All this was made possible by the generosity of Cuban exiles under the leadership of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC) and Cuban Soul Foundation (CSF).
In the coming months, the Ladies in White propose to expand the Extending Our Hands project to other chapters to across the island .
The attitude of the Ladies in White towards these children dispossessed by the Castro dictatorship leaves one reflective of the true nature of caring, human compassion and the creative leadership of an emerging independent Cuban civil society.
