About Akokán

WE ARE PROUD TO BE SUPPORTING CUBAN CHARITY AKOKÁN THROUGH A DONATION OF 10% OF SALES GENERATED FROM THE WEIGHT OF AN ISLAND IN THE LOVE OF THE PEOPLE

 

Akokán is a word from Lucumi, an Afro-Cuban ritual language that means “from the heart”.

 

It is a name given to community demonstrating extraordinary resilience living in an informal settlement of Los Pocitos, since 2016. More than 2000 people living in conditions of vulnerability and poverty (1,500 men and 1,000 women), predominantly black and mixed race, benefit from the actions of this network of community social assistance.

  • Akokán and the Pocitos-Palmar Popular Council where this community is located, have drawn together several people from different sectors, such as the Abakua society, the gastronomic undertaking Café ODDARA project, the community mass organizations, a numerous group of voluntary citizens, the Patios Network, civil society organizations like Cieric, the Felix Varela Center, the Antonio Nunez Jimenez Foundation of Nature and Men, and the CISP. Universities like Flacso and San Geronimo joined in, as well as the Rebirth Third Paradise project. These people contribute their expertise about an inclusive, effective methodology of participatory action, in an inclusive and effective way.

     

    As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the network has been mobilized to immediately produce means of protection, identify the elderly people living on their own, to promote the distribution of free lunch, to carry out a communications campaign, and to promote virtual playing activities for children. 

      

    Akokán is a model of intervention on a small scale, involving joint action by the civil society, governments, universities and the private sector, in an effort to mitigate the social impact of COVID-19 and to generate opportunities of improvement of the social conditions of this population.