CAMAGÜEY.- The university is a kind of "Cuirass Heart", recalling a poem by the illustrious Mario Benedetti. It is so similar to what the verses reveal “(…) because you always exist wherever / but you exist better where I love you”. Amid these turbulent times of COVID-19, the university essence can be felt in the communities, which is not limited to the distant, and now isolated, campus of the northern beltway.

Such is the cooperation of the students involved in active research, in the fight against resellers and hoarders, in messaging and other initiatives that are promoted in all the houses of higher studies in the country.

That same essence also defines the brave volunteers who, since the first day of March, collaborate in the Red Zone of the isolation center set up on the grounds of the University of Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz. They returned to the corridors, but not to the classrooms; they took up the residence, but not the teaching; in short, now they are founders of a new university, one that teaches protection and care, confinement and disinfection, fear and courage.

For Doraine Linares Jiménez, president of the University Student Federation of the House of Higher Studies of Camagüey and also a volunteer, “the work has been hard, although as the days go by we learn to organize ourselves better. We take care of functions such as cleaning the outdoor areas and food distribution.

"I think the important thing is to form a good team, we have achieved that. Each one depends on the other, since if someone neglects some protection measure, we are all affected. Our care is a priority. We thank the directors of the University, for their constant zeal with what we need to fulfill our mission without getting sick.

"We have many experiences." She says they recently found a suspicious little boy staring at the horizon from the windows of the residence. He decided to photograph it and publicize that image in a post. “It struck me, because the children do not have an exact notion of what is happening around them and they are isolated in a shelter, without playing, without seeing the dolls… The daily figures force us to reflect on this.

 “On the other hand, it is comforting when we deliver food to patients, and although we limit conversations as much as possible, they always fill us with a 'thank you. They stimulate us and congratulate us.

“Right now three professors are working: Osvaldo and Daimara from the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and Fernando from Social Sciences. For the students, I am accompanied by Dainelis Rocamora from Electromechanics and Yurisdán Paneque, from the Chemical Engineering career ”.

Paneque, 5th year student, he also shares his impressions, although physically exhausted after an intense day of work.

“Since the province began a decline in the epidemiological situation, I decided to live this experience, which is really beautiful. We know of university students who have joined the task in other centers ”.

They are in the front line, but another fight their relatives fight. “At home, my family is afraid, I think like all of us who are here. They are not tired of repeating us the importance of following the protocols and taking care of ourselves. In that sense, we try to be the most responsible in pursuit of the quality of the task we undertake.

“We guarantee that the food arrives at the right time and effectively to the nearly 100 patients that we serve so far. We take care of keeping the podium steps and disinfection areas active. In short, everything that is needed to facilitate the isolation process for suspects until the result of the PCR tests is known.

“We encourage patients to maintain discipline and give them the confidence that they will be cared for safely. Some have already been isolated at another time and return to the center for being contacts. We try to encourage the children more because of how complex the internment is for them ”.

Daimara Mustelier Casola, professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology, is pursuing her second degree in Chemical Engineering. She may have imagined a different celebration for International Women's Day, but she lived the date between protective masks.

“We must work closely together. We take food up to the third floor of the building, but in general we take on any task: organize patients when performing the PCR test or fumigate some rooms. However, we are ready to help the medical staff as necessary ”.

It is March, and it seems that in these boys the historical leader of Cuban university students José Antonio Echeverría .

Thus, among stories of audacious attached to a breastplate heart, the pitched battle against COVID-19 is fought, waiting for a Sovereign that allows Doraine, Yurisdán and Daimara, Dainelis, Osvaldo and Fernando, like so many others, to return to the university that exists wherever it wants, but exists better where we love it.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez