Elderly Woman's Request for Soap in Cuba Leads to Unexpected Reaction

A young Cuban woman, known on TikTok as @bia_bhpp, shared a video on Tuesday that moved thousands. She recounted an encounter with an elderly lady who stopped her on the street to ask for help buying soap, and the surprising turn of events that followed after she gave the woman 1,000 Cuban pesos.

In the TikTok video, the young woman describes going shopping with her mother when the elderly lady approached them. "An older lady came up to us and asked if we could help her buy a soap," she explained. Instead of offering a small sum, she handed the lady 1,000 pesos, an amount she admitted was unusual for her: "I had never done that, never given 1,000 pesos. 1,000 pesos is a lot because, imagine, a salary in Cuba is 7,000 pesos, 6,000 pesos."

The elderly woman's reaction left her speechless. Upon receiving the money, the lady initially refused it: "She looked at me and said, 'No, no, no.'" When the young woman persisted, the elderly lady asked for something different: "She gestured and looked at me, saying, 'Oh, please, let me give you a hug.'" The hug was accompanied by repeated blessings — "May God bless you, my child" — leaving the young woman's mother teary-eyed.

The Burden of Basic Necessities in Cuba

"Soap is very, very, very necessary, and not everyone has the money to buy it, as it's quite expensive," the narrator explained, highlighting a common reality in Cuba. On the black market, a bar of soap can range from 150 to 400 Cuban pesos, while the official minimum pension for retirees is just 4,000 pesos a month, less than ten dollars at the informal exchange rate.

The scene described by @bia_bhpp is not isolated. According to the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, 79% of those over 70 in Cuba cannot afford three meals a day. A survey of 506 retirees in five provinces revealed that 99% claim their pension doesn't cover food, housing, or medicine. Economists estimate that meeting basic needs on the island requires around 96,000 pesos monthly, over twenty times the minimum pension.

Acts of Kindness Amidst Hardship

Recently, similar gestures have circulated on social media. Activist Noly Blak traveled through Holguín distributing over 600,000 pesos to those in need, and a 91-year-old man with Parkinson's was seen begging in Santiago de Cuba because his 3,000-peso pension was insufficient for food. Previously, a Cuban man helped an elderly woman asking for money in Bayamo and publicly criticized the country's social situation.

These videos serve as a testament to the profound social and economic crisis afflicting Cuba, which the state has failed to resolve. At the same time, they showcase spontaneous acts of solidarity among citizens helping each other in the face of inadequate state protection.

"If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, please help because we never know how much it might mean to someone when we can give without it costing us so much," the young woman concluded in her video.