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Special Report: By Jennifer Ferenstein, Sierra Club President
For seven days, we visited governmental agencies including finance, agriculture, biotechnology, social services and the environment. We also met with the U.S. Ambassador (officially the Principal Officer) and learned about issues related to human rights and the Castro government. While many would consider our 3-hour visit with Fidel Castro the highlight of our visit, it was the subtleties of the country, the genuine warmth of the people and their commitment to environmental sustainability that truly won my heart. One of our first meetings was with representatives from the Federation of Cuban Women. The Federation's membership consists of 82% of all Cuban women over the age of 14 or 3.6 million women. The goal of the Federation is to raise the standard of living for women and promote their participation in all levels of society. While Cubans are poor by American standards, they have achieved some impressive successes. Literacy rates are nearly 100%. In education, they graduate 700,000 from college every year and the average educational level is 9th grade. In health/medicine, the infant mortality rate is only 6.2/1000. Pre-Revolutionary Cuba had less than 6,000 doctors, most of whom were concentrated in the cities. Now, with a family doctor and nurse duo in nearly every major village, there are over 65,000 physicians in this country of 11 million, making Cuba one of the best-equipped health care systems in the world. According to the dean of the 3-year-old Latin American School of Medical Sciences, Cuba now exports doctors and trains thousands of medical students from 24 countries in Latin America and Africa. Ms. America Santos, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment, provided us with background information on the commitment of the Cuban government to provide funding and opportunities for women in the Sciences. Established in 1994, the Department was formed as a response to the 1992 Rio Summit and the recognition that serious environmental problems needed to be addressed. There are 218 science centers and 52% of the people who staff these centers are women. 43% of all Cuban researchers are women. 30% of the members of the Cuban Academy of Science are women. Ms. Santos exhibited great pride in the advances her country has made in the areas of biotechnology, sustainable development and the social sciences. We were shown a CD-Rom based presentation on women's reproductive health designed to raise awareness about pregnancy. The goal is to steadily increase the accessibility of the Cuban people to computers, specifically, getting at least 1 PC in every youth center in the country (particularly in rural areas, to increase opportunities for education. Our visit with Fidel Castro was memorable. He greeted each of us individually, standing at the end of a table of cookies and coffee before addressing the group in its entirety. Meanwhile, we waited in line like nervous and excited children on their first day of school. When my turn came to introduce myself, I told him that I was the President of the Sierra Club, an environmental organization that understands that the fate of earth is linked to the empowerment of women and to the stabilization of global population. I handed him a packet of Sierra Club literature. He nodded at me and said, "They used to call environmentalists alarmists, but we know now that if we don't protect the environment we are lost." During my brief visit to Cuba, I was introduced to a land rich in beauty, history and paradox. Faced with challenges, Cubans have proven to be survivors. With a meat shortage in the city, they've turned to raising guinea pigs in cramped urban backyards. When rural farms couldn't provide enough food to Havana due to the lack of refrigerated transport as much as production problems, the government encouraged the cultivation of fruit and vegetable gardens in Havana's abandoned lots. When pesticides became unavailable following the collapse of the USSR, worm bins and organic gardening were celebrated. I will never forget my trip to Cuba, the beauty of the landscape, the passion of the people for baseball, and above all, the fragility of an island country struggling to improve its quality of life in a sustainable manner. I hope that our visit accomplished the goal of linking their struggles with ours. We have much to learn from one another and I believe that this trip to Cuba was a good start. Back to Spring 2002 Population Report Photo courtesy JHU/CCP Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
In January of 2002, I left behind my home in the snowy mountains of Montana and traveled to Cuba along with 42 other women from the United States. Led by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), we flew to Havana under the University of Washington's federal educational license with the U.S. Treasury Department. The Center for Women and Democracy conceived of this trip to help fulfill its mission to link women of the world and to understand the issues that effect women. The Sierra Club helped sponsor the trip in order to connect Cuban women leaders with women from the U.S. and to explore the environmental challenges facing Cuba.