The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced a partnership with 30 schools across the eastern Cuban provinces of Guantánamo, Granma, and Santiago de Cuba to upgrade water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions for more than 5,000 students and roughly 1,000 teachers. Funded by the Government of Japan, the initiative aims to strengthen institutional resilience in a region heavily impacted by infrastructure decay and weather extremes.
The Three-Star Approach and Data Collection
According to UNICEF Cuba, the program implements the “Three-Star” methodology, a structured framework designed to guide educational facilities from basic conditions up to national standards through gradual improvements in habits, services, and infrastructure. The process begins with baseline data collection regarding real-time access to water and sanitation facilities. Field evaluations took place in July across Granma province, including visits to schools such as Ciro Frías Cabrera, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Conrado Benítez in Pilón, alongside Adalberto Pesant and Viet Nam Heroico in Niquero, as reported by UNICEF.
Japan-UNICEF Cooperation Framework
This educational intervention stems from a broader bilateral agreement formalized in December 2025, when the Japanese government and UNICEF signed a 24-month cooperation pact in Havana valued at approximately one million dollars. This funding arrives during an acute regional water and sanitation deficit.
Infrastructure Challenges in Eastern Cuba
In April 2026, UNICEF reported that 50 water supply systems in Santiago de Cuba were inactive, leaving some communities without piped water for up to 21 days. These failures compound wider supply issues documented in September 2025, when more than three million residents across Cuba faced total or partial water shortages driven by prolonged droughts, severe energy grid failures, and decades of deferred maintenance on municipal pumping stations. In Guantánamo, tropical storms and hurricanes damaged over 270 schools, forcing more than 20 institutions to operate out of temporary alternative locations. These degraded sanitary conditions previously triggered public health warnings, including an October 2025 hepatitis outbreak across schools in Las Tunas province.
Prior UNICEF Interventions in the Region
UNICEF has maintained an active operational presence in eastern Cuba throughout recent emergencies. In November 2025, the organization deployed three portable water purification plants in Granma capable of generating safe drinking water for more than 21,000 people daily. During that same period, field teams distributed over 3,300 family hygiene kits and delivered construction materials to restore damaged school infrastructure in Santiago de Cuba in the wake of Hurricane Melissa. Under the current Three-Star rollout, participating institutions will implement low-cost behavioral practices—such as mandatory handwashing with soap and daily sanitation routines—before advancing to structural renovations that establish safe drinking water access and gender-segregated restroom facilities.
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