By Zunilda Mata.
Discriminated against
for decades, Cuba’s Jehovah’s Witnesses just opened an employment agency that
focuses on the “honesty and decency” of its people. The database “is an
opportunity to advertise the skills that the brothers have in different
professions and trades,” says Tamara Sanchez, one of the managers.
As a “private
initiative,” although it is linked to the religious community, she describes
the new project as one to connect the private sector with “serious and decent”
workers. Close relationships within the congregation are a plus for the rapid
transmission of information.
“When I look for a
job with the state and they realize that I am Jehovah’s Witness they see me as
a weirdo,” said Mario Francisco. “I was not a Pioneer [in elementary school]
and did not wear the neckerchief,” he recalls.
The young man works
in the private sector as a caregiver for the elderly. He considers that job
opportunities through the agency could be “a way to erase prejudice.” He notes
that he only works with families who share his beliefs because he feels “more
respected.”
“Please, if you are
not a witness, do not call to register (…), although we do not doubt that you
are an honest person, we cannot accept your registration,” clarify the managers
of the employment exchange. The project is focused only on those who “find it
very difficult to get work in these critical times.”
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Jehovah’s Witness
Hall in Havana. (14yMedio)
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The Cuban
government’s relationship with Jehovah’s Witnesses has been tense since the
coming to power of Fidel Castro. Many were interned in the Military Units to
Aid Production (UMAP) camps that operated on the island between 1965 and 1968 –
along with other religious believers, homosexuals and political dissidents –
while others were driven underground and into exile.
The official
animosity continues today, but some years ago the authorities issued permits
for the congregation’s meeting halls to open. “We are allowed to meet but there
is no public recognition that we exist, that we are here and we are not
criminals or bad people,” says the nurse.
The stigma is felt
strongly in teaching and working life. “There is not a single Jehovah’s Witness
who is the manager of a hotel, a hard-currency store manager or a state
official,” says Mario Francisco. In his opinion, this group is still seen as
“unreliable” for certain positions.
The latest report on
Religious Freedom in the World (2014), released by the United States Department
of State, reveals that the Cuban authorities continue to monitor the activities
of religious groups on the island. Among the hardest hit are the Jehovah’s
Witnesses.
Although the
Constitution, in force on the island since 1976, enacts that “the State
recognizes, respects and guarantees religious freedom,” the Office of Religious
Affairs of the Communist Party staunchly monitors construction permits for new
houses of worship.
Excessive controls
have strengthened the informal networks that serve the Witnesses to spread
their beliefs from door to door, to help each other in case of need and to warn
each other of dangers. They have now extended these networks to the job search.
Through a phone call,
a text message or an e-mail sent to the organizers of the new employment
agency, applicants submit their professional skills and contact details. The
project has two databases, one public and one private.
The public
information can be read on classified site such as Revolico and others
circulate in the Weekly Packet. There are more than twenty occupations included
and they include everything from plumbing to cooking, cleaning, medicine and
jewelry making.
“Often someone would
ask us for a serious, honest and responsible worker for a job and we didn’t
have ways to identify the brother who would be ideal for the position,” the
promoters explain. The list will favor those who until now have been adversely
affected by prejudice.
“The witnesses who
are contacted for a possible job will be duly questioned about their beliefs
and their faithfulness in the service of the Lord,” they clarify. A test that
Mario Francisco deems necessary. “When people ask me for my religious beliefs,
it is usually to not give me the job… but in this case I will answer the
question without fear.”
Source: 14yMedio and Translating
Cuba.
