NewsAll news

"When a young man speaks, the soul remembers where vigor turns on. When an old man speaks, the soul rests, trusts, awaits, it would smile if it had lips, and it seems to expand in peace”

Jose Marti

As faithful followers of this precept from Martí, students and workers participated this Thursday, October 12 in the visit to Lazo de la Vega Nursing Home in La Lisa municipality, as part of the activities of the socio cultural university project "Joyous visits".

Bringing joy and love to those who need it most, has become the main theme of this project running already on its fifth anniversary.

"Joyous Visits" seeks to develop in the young people of the university community Marti’s will in the desire to serve others, based on the premises of belief in the capacity for interaction in harmony that individuals possess to interrelate with others; and the confidence in the possibility that they all have to be better when they hold human and moral values, to serve disinterestedly those who need a drop of love and joy.

The initial moment of the activity was dedicated to the training provided by Tamara Barrera Ortega, specialist of the Department of University Welfare, as she explained to all participants how to try to maintain an emotional activation in order to achieve a physical and mental improvement in permanence with them during the visit. In addition, an exhaustive explanation of the main characteristics of dementia in its different stages, risks and treatments, motivated everybody and especially the younger students and teachers, as they could realize how important it is to know and to be able to do with reason and consciousness, as expressed by José Martí.

Since the arrival to the center, it was possible to interact with the workers, and to verify the human work developed by them there. The occasion was conducive to celebrate the Day of the Elderly, recognized by the United Nations and the international community and celebrated every October 1st. With the support of several people of good will who collaborate with the project, a small token of our appreciation was given to each of the participants, including coloring books, reading books, masks and birthday cakes. On the other hand, the director of the institution was given some decorative objects made by students and workers, as well as other tools for their daily work.

A group of students took part in the activity, most of them from Brigade 2301, joined by others who are already promoters of the project. Art came to that institution in the voice of Esperanza Lafargue Vinent, Educational Instructor of the Directorate of Residence 1; the corporal expression came through the dance of Kirenia Quesada Gé, student of Brigade 2504, all with the collaboration of the sound track engineers, cheering up all those present during the activity.  

Great joy could be appreciated among grandparents and workers of the nursing home; they all danced and sang, and we could appreciate that more and more incorporated to the activity until everything was overflowing in smiles. We could even see the knot in the throat of a doctor whose mother danced joyfully. With much love and affection, as he ran his hands on her head, the doctor urged the institution to carry out activities like this and thus congratulated the project members by saying that they had returned the joy and desire to live to these grandparents.

In the final moments of the visit, the guests could taste the cake offered by the project management and the University. As has already become customary, there was a special farewell, which evidenced the desire for an immediate return.

A special thanks  is given to all those who made the development of the activity possible:  Mirta Beltrandez, main coordinator of the project; Idalis, Maria Elina, Niobis, Eliana Bárbara, Liliet, Roberto and Alexander Naples Terry, professors of School 2; Mairelis Sais Acosta, from the CEDIN Center; María Mercedes Acosta Herrera, from the Directorate of Institutional Communication; Esperanza Lafargue Vinent, from the Residence Office 1; Tamara Barrera Ortega, Department of University Welfare; Elizabeth, Yudith, Claudia, Shakira, Maray, Cecilia, Eliany, Reinier, Roger, Damian, Daniel Monné, Mauricio and Michelangelo, from Brigade 2301; Sandy, from Brigade 2303; Jeniffer Orizondo and Jonathan of Brigade 2304; Niurka, Brigade 2202; Yanio Hernández Heredia, Dean of School 2;  and the Department of University Extension.

Thanks in general to all those who, in one way or another, made their modest contribution so that the University of Informatics Sciences, through its extension projects, can take to the community: the art of bringing joy.