HABITAT-CUBA: UN Helps Revitalise Havana Neighbourhood

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jul 22 1999 (IPS) - Life in the San Isidro port district of Havana, one of the poorest areas of capital, has changed in the past two months since the installation of a recreation and academic centre in an abandoned warehouse.

People of all ages now have a space in which to enjoy a wide variety of activities, thanks to a joint project by the Havana authorities and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“It is the first time that we have something like this in the neighbourhood. When I used to come home from work, I didn’t have anything to do except for cooking or watching TV. Now I am doing aerobic exercises,” says Milagro Diaz, a 41-year-old woman who is a native of San Isidro.

Diaz, a computer programmer at a state-owned company, says that since the recreation centre opened, “I feel rejuvenated, and am much happier.”

“I have two boys who finish their classes at school two hours before I get home from work. Before, they used to wander the streets with their friends, but now they take judo lessons at the centre,” she explains.

Located in the southern part of Old Havana, which was declared a Historical Heritage Site in 1982 by the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the neighbourhood was considered one of the worst in the Cuban capital.

Although life here has changed in the last few decades, San Isidro was unable to shed the negative image it had retained since 1902, when Gov. Leonard Wood ordered all the prostitutes Havana to relocate to this area.

San Isidro was home to Alberto Yarini, the most infamous pimp in Cuban history, whose life and violent death became the subject of many fictional stories, journalistic investigations, theatrical works and films.

But despite notoriety, the area also was an enclave of craftsman, bricklayers, dock workers and shipyard laborers, who were so poor that their old, humble dwellings have remained practically unchanged for nearly 100 years.

Cuba’s national hero, Jose Marti, was born and lived for several years in one of those houses, prompting the directors of the centre to name it after the poet and Independence activist’s mother, Leonor Perez.

More than 3,000 children from Old Havana can now engage in various sports at the centre, which two primary schools in the zone use for physical education classes. There is also specialised exercise therapy available for elderly residents.

It is just one of 23 projects being carried out in Havana’s historical district by the Local Human Development Programme (LHDP), coordinated by the UNDP with the assistance of donors which evolved from the World Summit on Social Development held in Copenhagen in March 1995.

Giovanni Camilleri, the main technical advisor for LHDP, said that in Cuba, the programme “aims to support national efforts to prevent poverty, and to maintain and improve current social achievements and equality.”

“Old Havana, where important programmes of historical and human preservation were already in place, was an appropriate site for our involvement,” affirmed the U.N. official.

The work of LHDP complemented a rehabilitation programme in the area of San Isidro, initiated in 1997 by the Historical Preservation Office of the City of Havana with the participation of area residents.

According to the latest population census carried out in Old Havana, there were 3,965 people in San Isidro in 1997, 40 percent of whom lived in homes without running water.

There are 244 buildings in the neighbourhood, of which 78 are in good shape, 93 show moderate deterioration and 73 exhibit severe deterioration. Nearly 53 percent of the buildings house more than one family, who are forced to share only one bathroom.

The programme of the Historical Preservation Office has among its main objectives the restoration of these houses, using state resources and the participation of their inhabitants.

The idea is to “convert the neighbourhood into a real community that can itself satisfy individual and collective needs and which is able to act in cooperation with local authorities to gain new services,” affirms Katia Cardenas.

Cardenas, a publicist for the historical district, explained that the goal is to “promote new customs in this under- appreciated historical zone” and to transform it “into a consolidated social structure.”

For their part, the LHDP projects promote local economic development, job creation, the integration of vulnerable groups, protection of the environment, development and sustainability of public services, as well as education and health care.

To achieve these goals, it relies on the support of some 40 cities in the Italian region of Tuscany, among them Florence, Sienna, Livorno, Arezzo and Viareggio.

The funds for the recreation centre arrived from Viareggio, as well as the money for academic classes and other projects that include solid waste processing, distribution of potable water and the introduction of natural medicine and homeopathy in community health services.

From 1975 to 1995, the UNDP participated in 150 projects with Cuba and brought in more than 54 million dollars in funding.

Now, we are seeing “how the U.N. system fulfills its true mission,” opined Havana historian Eusebio Leal on the opening of the centre in San Isidro.

Advocating that the historical restoration should be accompanied by better living conditions for area residents, Leal said that “works like this help to resolve one of the greatest problems today: the free time and health of citizens.” (FIN/IPS/da/dm/dv/ks/99)