by Elizabeth Rodriguez, Ministerio Amistad
Bayamo Granma is a province located in southeast Cuba where there are two hard-to-reach communities. In each of these communities there are people with different kind of intellectual disabilities. In Guamo, one of these communities, there are 13 people with cognitive disabilities, while in Santa Rosa there are 9. Their ages range from 3 to 50 years old.
Yanara Aviles Dominguez is the person in charge of Christian formation in these two communities. She is based at the First Baptist Church of Bayamo and works with 4 volunteers from other denominations.
In addition to being very remote, these communities do not have the appropriate materials to evangelize people with intellectual disabilities. Previously, they had to improvise all the time and try to adapt old resources. But when Yanara saw information about Ministerio Amistad in a local magazine, everything changed. Thanks to donations received from Friendship Canada, we were able to send the Amistad program to both the Guamo and Santa Rosa communities.
“The Amistad program is the answer to our prayers,” she said. The illustrations are especially helpful in communicating lessons from God’s word.
In addition to the Amistad program, Yanara receives our monthly newsletter, where we share ideas and guidelines for the proper development of each Friendship program. She was grateful for the guidance we offer on abuse prevention, since many of her group members have been victims of abuse in the past.
We thank God not only for allowing us to be present with our materials in poor areas of difficult access, but also for your gifts that allow us to continue this beautiful work.
