MADRID, Spain.- The Cuban priest Bladimir Navarro, resident in Spain, has created the Shelter Project, in order to support Cubans who arrive without help in the European country.
Navarro arrived in Spain to study a master’s degree in Morals at the San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University, in 2019.
“One of the recurring themes during my studies was the situation of extreme poverty in Cuba, so that, little by little, I realized that it was urgent to do something for the Cuban nation and create a structure that would help those who arrived very destitute into exile,” the father explained to The New Herald.
“There is not a day that I do not receive at least five cases, nor a week in which I do not go up to two times to the Barajas airport to look for new arrivals. (…) We always give priority, after a first interview, to those who are really completely helpless, and who arrive after crossing several European borders from Russia and Serbia and live in extreme situations, held in detention camps in Bosnia, without documents, without money, without clothes, attacked, completely helpless and, above all, psychologically destroyed”, he explained.
“Of course, my greatest desire is to participate one day in the reconstruction of Cuba because I know that one day we can and will have to rebuild our country in ruins,” he also said.
Not long after it was founded, the project already has three apartments (one in Alcobendas and two in San José and Vista Alegre, Carabanchel neighborhood) and a villa in Algete that will be inaugurated in the coming days.
Shelter places these people in these homes and, when there is no more capacity, it has the help of Spanish foster families among the parishioners of the parish of Alcobendas.
Collaborating with him are the Cubans Yani Mati (psychologist), Ronald Bolaños and Lorena (stomatologists), Janie (engineer and president of Cobijo), Lázaro (doctor and vice president of the project), Glaisis Carbonell (communicator), Yamilet (accountant) and Elisabeth (artist), as well as the Spanish Ignacio (accountant).
