Today, Dianelis Terrero Díaz is a little cheerful girl, full of dreams, who enjoys singing, shares with classmates and every day substantially, improves her sign language thanks to her family's efforts and the support of the educational system in Guantanamo.
Her impressing communicative skills are showed in each conversation she builds a bridge with the hearing people, when she shares thoughts and criteria.
And with the advantage of an early diagnosis, this girl, who is deaf from birth receives free care from an early age, which makes a difference in his story.
But it is not a unique case, as this little girl more than 150 children with some type of disability study in the 14 de Junio Special School in the Guantanamo City, a center that guarantees their training despite the high cost of special education amid the tight economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States Government towards Cuba for almost 60 years.
We could ask ourselves: How much more could the country do if it did not suffer the rigors imposed by this genocidal policy against the greater of the Antilles?
Antonia Coello Castillo, speech therapist at the the 14 de Junio Special School, national avant-garde center for 8 consecutive school year, highlights that special education in Guantanamo is exalted every school year.
“Despite all the obstacles of the blockade, more than 40 workers are more dynamic and creative to be able to do our job in the face of so many restrictions imposed by such Washington’s determination.
There are many alternatives that we adopt to overcome the shortage of machines and paper to write in Braille, strips, magnifiers, audiometers, as well as thermofon, a multi-scale embossed material for the blind student whose cost exceeds 2 thousand dollars and we receive for the first time in this course, thanks to the donation of the Council of Churches,” the experienced educator said, who with excellent command of the subject presented other arguments.
“For the 32 deaf or visually impared children, we also need sound amplification equipment, audiometers and voice videos, resources that if they could be brought from a Florida port, transportation costs would be reduced to almost a third of the expenses for concept of freight ”, the teacher Antonia Coello Castillo concluded.
All previous arguments explained may seem simple, but the situation is serious taking into account that every school year since its opening in 1989, 14 de Junio Special School suffers from the limitations of resources and audiovisual media necessary to correct or treat the different pathologies of these children diagnosed as: deaf, blind, visually impared, straits and amblyopia.
In the 14 de Junio Special School there are children from the ten municipalities of Guantánamo Province, and they have guaranteed food and a multidisciplinary team composed of speech therapists, stomatologists, specialists in ophthalmology among others, who systematically care for them.
The US Government with its stubborn hostile policy violates a constitutional right of the more than 1,800 children enrolled in the 21 special centers in Guantanamo.
It is the youngest generation that suffers from the shortcomings. The relief only comes to account of the efforts of the revolutionary State, teachers and the solidarity of people who cooperate to guarantee this elementary right of human beings.
This November after the presentation once again before the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization Resolution 67/4, which calls for the end of the blockade towards Cuba: What answers about the blockade could the president of the United States, Donal Trump, give to the children of the 14 de Junio Special School?
Whatever the answer, the only sure thing will be the firm Revolution in the will to give hope back to children like Dianelis Terrero Díaz, a reality that makes our educational system a reference for the world because of its free, massive and inclusive nature.