A broader view of youth problems

By María Josefina Arce.

Although in Cuba children and young people are guaranteed the most elementary human rights, it is necessary to have a broader and more comprehensive vision of the attention to this population segment that takes into account their needs and the context of the country, with a complex economic situation, after two years of the COVID 19 pandemic and the tightening of the U.S. blockade.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel has insisted on this vital issue, stating that "we have to look for them to find their life project in the country, and we have to do things for the young people who are in Cuba and also for those we have outside, with whom we have to maintain a relationship".

On that path, work has been going on for months in the elaboration of the Integral Policy for the Attention to Young People and Children, a proposal formulated last February by the Cuban Academy of Sciences to the country's top leadership.

The proposal, very well received by the authorities, contemplates issues related to health, education, employment, culture, sports, recreation and housing, among others.

The objective of this strategy, which covers people from birth to 30 years of age, is to provide them with opportunities to develop their capabilities, with distinctions that allow attending to the different age groups according to their specific needs.

Although ministries, institutions, research centers and civil society organizations are involved in this important task, the opinion of the new generations for whom this policy is designed is essential.

In order to know their main interests and needs, a digital consultation is carried out in all Cuban provinces and in all educational levels and work centers, both in the state sector and in the new economic actors.

Young people who have been disconnected from study and work are also consulted, since it is necessary to investigate the causes of this situation and be able to seek alternatives, to outline strategies in this policy that provide a valid response.

It is a priority to look for more effective reinsertion elements. It is a great challenge for Cuba, an aging country, and where young people have an important weight in the future and have also shown their worth in the present.

Keyla Estévez García, director of the Center for Youth Studies, in declarations to Juventud Rebelde newspaper expressed her conviction that children and young people will enrich the policy of integral attention, that their proposals may have more creativity and more focused on their priorities.

Although in complex conditions, with accumulated problems, there is willingness and desire to work to design a policy of Integral Attention to young people and children, which takes into account all contexts and contributes to the realization of their individual projects and their active participation in the economic and social processes of the nation.