XUNICEF News and Views

We talk constantly about decolonising aid. About moving away from Northern-led, extractive development models. About South-South solidarity. About trusting communities and shifting power. It fills our conferences, our theories of change, our funding frameworks.

Back from a photography visit in Havana, I am sharing some photographs of what turned to be a heartwarming encounter with the Cuban people. The photos were made in the famous Prodanza Ballet Center, in a boxing gym, at a Santeria religious ceremony, in a barber shop, and in the streets of diverse neighborhoods of the city. 

Exuberance of Youth, Cienfuegos I visited Cuba in March 2024, traveling for 13 days with an American small group tour. We started in Havana, then branched out to other towns and cities throughout central Cuba — Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Trinidad and Vinales.

Exchange of messages by Tom Miller and Kul Gautam From Tom Miller Confirming Helen Yaffe's observations in "Cuba Sends Doctors, the US sends sanctions" is the attached letter written by the late Dr. Paul Farmer, who, joining Congresswoman Barbara Lee, nominated Cuban doctors and medical workers for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.

We were walking along the beautiful white sandy beach when we saw a man surrounded by some 10 strange looking birds. As I approached to ask him what they were one of the birds came from behind me and slashed my leg with its beak. I hardly felt it but it left a razor thin gash of more than two inches on the calf of my leg which started to bleed profusely. I ran immediately into the ocean and washed the leg with salty water...it took a while for the bleeding to stop. And by the way, he said they were local pelicans !Such was the start of our recent two week vacation !