By Daylen Alberteris

Holguín, Cuba – Under a sky that threatened rain but eventually opened up with blessings, a group of volunteers from the Amistad con Cuba Foundation from the Netherlands showed that solidarity knows no bounds – no borders of countries, electricity, or a lack of tables. In a church still under construction, near the Calle Real of Pueblo Nuevo, something happened few had expected: a free meal for 40 vulnerable people grew into an act of pure humanity.

Without electricity, without an internet connection, but with burning charcoal and a heart full of commitment, the volunteers – including Marcos, Daylen, Yorlandis, and the local pastor – did what others might deem impossible. Daylen brought the only table available. The rest consisted of wooden boxes covered with tablecloths and seating that arose thanks to collective creativity and goodwill.

“We had nothing, really, but with boxes and cloths we created dozens of places at the table. Tables of humanity,” says one of the organisers.

The menu was simple, but delicious: rice and beans, prepared by a chef of Jamaican origin, whose cooking was praised by everyone. And therein lies something special: this chef too, like several of the church’s helpers, belonged to the people who live with shortages and difficulties on a daily basis. People with a story. People who perhaps know hunger themselves, but are still willing to serve others.

But what made this meal truly special wasn't just the food. It was the intention behind it.

The room was adorned with palm leaves and balloons, so that every guest felt welcome and appreciated. It wasn't just about filling stomachs that might have barely eaten the day before. It was about creating smiles, memories, and conversations. Not just sharing a meal, but also a piece of humanity.

And the stories came naturally.

A single mother with three children. A grandmother raising two orphaned grandchildren. A boy with sickle cell anaemia. An elderly man without family or support. An 82-year-old woman still trying to arrange lifts to care for her non-ambulant daughter and her bedridden husband.

Every person was a lesson. Every story a wound that this meal, if only for a day, attempted to soothe.

As Marcos and Daylen invited people in the streets of Pueblo Nuevo, they also passed a community kitchen. There, more people who could use help joined without hesitation. Because when help is genuine, people recognise it immediately. And when love is served warm, it has the power to change lives.

At the end of the day, rain fell over Pueblo Nuevo. Not ordinary rain, but what the volunteers called a rain of blessings. Because despite the shortages, despite the lack of electricity, and despite the unfinished walls of the church, something was completed: the realisation that another world is possible, one meal at a time.

The Stichting Amistad con Cuba, through its human project AmiMesa, wishes to remind everyone that its volunteers do not place themselves above the people they help. They feel equal to them. And perhaps therein lies the true strength of change: in the realisation that we all need love, hope, a warm meal, and a sincere conversation.

Today, forty people ate a hot meal in Pueblo Nuevo. But many more people – from the Netherlands to Holguín – discovered that true friendship tastes like rice and beans, is adorned with balloons and, when necessary, is prepared over charcoal. Always with the fire of the soul burning.

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