A one-week whirlwind trip to bring materials to the fashion and sewing school in Trinidad.
Abigaïl and Sabine Vouillamoz left on February 6, 2025 and returned on February 14 to make this lightning trip and enjoy seeing the teams who work and train young people who want to have a trade.
We arrive in Trinidad on Friday February 7 at around 2pm and are greeted by the school's headmistress, Marianela, and the lawyer who works for the Trinidad City Conservator's office.
There is no electricity, and we learn that this is the case every day. Trinidad enjoys 3 hours of electricity a day, depending on the neighborhood.
As a result, the school is fairly quiet. The ceramics students work outside to take advantage of a ceramist who has a wood-fired kiln. The carpentry students work as much as possible with tools without electricity, but they lack sandpaper and are often without work.
As for the fashion and sewing students, they cannot use the sewing machines we have supplied. In future, we'll have to consider the use of pedal-operated machines. They work mainly in frivolity (hand-tied lace used in international haute couture) and are keen to develop models that can be sold.
They tell us about a project started by Fidel Castro in Matanzas, a northern city on the Atlantic coast some 100 km from Havana, where silkworm breeding is practiced, and which is now producing excellent results. One of the students who completed her course was able to benefit from training in silk thread spinning and weaving. She brought some to Trinidad so that we could get an idea of what we could do with it.
The school's headmistress wants to set up a plantation in Trinidad to start this breeding, with a view to creating silks to make stoles for sale in Europe.
We've brought fabric and lots of thread for them to practice with, but we realize that it's infinitely little compared to what they need.
We need to find a way of getting good material in large quantities and at a reasonable price so that we can send it to them.
A drawing teacher also comes to talk to us and tells us that drawing is extremely important in this field and they would need black pencils, colored pencils, paper and acrylic paint to develop the youngsters' artistic sense.
The town's former curator, Duznel, also visits us during the day, and tells us that he has a project in the Los Ingenios valley to revive a rum distillery and take the work from planting sugar cane to making rum.
We came away loaded with needs and with lots of ideas, such as offering young people completing their training a set of starter tools to help them get started in their professional activity.
The only hitch is that we have to send this equipment, as it's not in Cuba.
Our stay in Havana is just as intensive. Carlos Bauta, the man in charge of the marble works, tells us that the situation is so difficult that the population is leaving the country, and that the young people who can't leave are more interested in earning money than in training. The easiest solution is in the restaurant business, where they make better hands and earn a fairly good living. He tells us that Havana has lost around 400,000 inhabitants.
We visit the marble workshop where we've delivered our latest machines. Everything works perfectly when there's electricity. We realize that these students have no protection when they work, especially as they work with water and have to protect themselves.
They also need masks to protect them from the dust. One of the students has a severe cough. We'll have to send masks and protective clothing.
We visit another site where students initially learned to cast statues and other bronzes. The plan is to have a smaller vat so that they can make smaller pieces.
Botello and his partner will send us a project and their requirements.
We also visit a small store selling lead miniatures that tell the story of Cuba. This project was set up by Eusebio Leal, a former curator of Havana who passed away a few years ago.
On the last day of our whirlwind trip, we visit the Clandestina boutique and workshop and are amazed at the work that has gone into setting up the workshop, which is now fully functional. One thing remains to be done, and that's to replace the blinds that close off the workshop opening. The current blinds are so old that it's impossible to repair them. No spare parts are available.
This workshop is running like clockwork, and the store sells beautiful clothes to tourists and local businesses. For the latter, their specialty is printing logos on textiles.
The needs in Cuba are still enormous, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to walk the streets of Havana because the inhabitants are so needy. The Foundation remains active to help this population
Sabine and Abigaïl Vouillamoz, February 27, 2015.
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