From our Annals of Apartheid Tourism Bureau with some assistance from our Bureau of Socialist Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice
How’s this for a new cruel twist on Castro, Inc.’s apartheid policies? If you’re a foreigner with an autistic child, you can book a luxury beach resort vacation where your autistic child will receive constant care, attention and treatment, including the opportunity to swim with dolphins. But if you’re a Cuban with an autistic child, you will NEVER be able to find any medical or social program that addresses the needs of that child. Absolutely inhumane. The summit of callousness.
Abridged from 14yMedio via Translating Cuba
With an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), any medical treatment that Pedrín needs –a 15-year-old teenager who lives in the city of Holguín,– the process becomes an ordeal for his parents due to the lack of protocols and resources for autism cases in Cuban hospitals.
“We spent days waiting to get an appointment with the only dentist in the entire province who treats children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders,” Gabriel, age 44 and the father of the child, told 14ymedio.
“There are practically no clinics in any speciality that are prepared to care for autistic children in this area when they have a health problem. I have to go and speak to the doctors beforehand and explain to them that he cannot be in a cramped space, that he cannot sit and wait for hours in a corridor for the doctor to call him. There is a great lack of understanding on the part of the staff at these centers.”
As Gabriel sees it, the island’s health system “is not prepared to manage the health situations that autistic children and their families face.” Most of the time, doctors “who have training in this type of patient are very scarce and in Holguín they are only in the provincial capital, so you have to travel long distances sometimes to do simple things like a dental check-up or to treat a small wound.”
The testimony of Pedrín’s father contrasts with the recent announcement made by the Cuban Medical Services Marketing Company (CSMC) that it will offer foreign visitors arriving on the island a program for the care of children with autism spectrum disorders in the hotels of the northern keys in Ciego de Ávila.
Dr. Agnerys Cruz, director of the CSMC in that province, told Prensa Latina that the project will focus on the tourist destination Jardines del Rey. There, clients will be able to opt for “animal therapies in the dolphinariums of Cayos Coco and Cayos Guillermo,” in addition to specialized medical care to improve the well-being and quality of life of these children, much like the program run in other countries by the Beaches Resorts..
The initiative is the result of a collaboration between CSMC and the Canadian hotel chain Blue Diamond Resorts and also includes health tourism packages aimed at adults with social problems. “Interaction with aquatic mammals will be directed by specialized medical personnel and highly qualified trainers,” reads the announcement, which has not left a good impression on many Cuban families.
“It shows a lack of respect, because that’s what we, the parents of autistic children here in Holguín, have been asking for for years, that there be recreational options for our families who live with a lot of burden on their shoulders every day,” says Gabriel after learning the details of the new offerings for travelers. “I find it insulting that they offer those who don’t live here what they don’t offer us.” His discomfort is shared by other parents in a similar situation.
“Since my daughter began to show the first signs of autism, my husband and I have not been able to go on vacation anywhere,” laments Yaquelín, 32, mother of Rosslyn, 12. “When we have wanted to stay in one of those summer packages they sell to Cubans and we ask if the accommodation has some kind of protocol and comfort for children with this type of condition, they only give us evasive answers.”
Sorry, but the “revolution” needs money, and that end justifies any means that will bring it money.
As an Autistic Adult, I don’t think anyone with any sense of justice should go to Cuba. I’m never going to Cuba. I also really like your writing.
As a Non Cuban Autistic Adult, Castro Inc can go to Hell. They are the most morally wrong dictatorship in all of the Americas. They are the Tropical North Korea and I hope they get overthrown.