Upholstery business owner Barbara Millett was so moved by her visit to a school in Havana, Cuba in 2000 that she wants to do something to help the students there.

She is asking residents here to put aside everyday items that they take for granted, like pens, pencils, notebooks and rulers, and donate them to her so she can get them into the hands of the needy students.

Mrs. Millett visited Cuba in October of that year on a charter flight and one of the highlights of her week-long trip was the visit to a school called Escuela Nacional Augusto Cesar Santo located in a Havana neighbourhood.

There she encountered disciplined and polite children which warmed her heart.

But she also never forgot the image of watching those same children doing something unthinkable in Bermuda like sharing a pencil.

“Our children finish up school and have three-quarters of a school book left and would throw it away, but these children would take that book and really treasure that,” said Mrs. Millett.

“What I noticed at that school is they shared things like pencils, and it made me want to send as many pencils as I could so that each child could have a pencil.

“Watching those children treasure a pencil is just amazing to see...how something that is little to us means so much to them.

“It is something our children would never do.

“Pencils, pens, paper and writing books...they are in need of these sorts of things.

“In fact this school has computers but they don't have the paper to use in them.”

Other items that Mrs. Millett knows would be appreciated by the Cubans are English written storybooks and dictionaries to help the children with their lessons.

The school she visited had about 300 students who ranged from kindergarten to middle school age.

The school operated all year round and students are in classes from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“The teachers are very dedicated, the one teacher who gets there early in the morning rides 15 kilometres on a bike.

“He teaches gym, political science, English and world history and his wife will walk in in order to be with him,” Mrs Millett explained.

“She is not a teacher but she helps out at the school.”

Mrs. Millett was impressed with the behaviour of the students.

“We were videoing them and the students were looking into the camera to see themselves and all the teacher did was clap her hands and they went right back to their seats and sat and stayed quiet,” she recalled.

“If you asked them a question they raised their hands and answered.

“They are learning English.

“I think they realise the country is going to depend a lot on tourism so they are teaching the children to speak both languages.”

It was curiosity about the country that prompted Mrs. Millett to book a seat on the charter and now she can't wait for her next trip there.

“I was very curious about the country, because you hear so many negative things about the country and I wanted to see for myself whether what I heard was true,” she explained.

“I found the people very loving and caring, very open and even though they knew how their country was portrayed, they themselves didn't portray the negatives that you hear.”

Mrs. Millett was one of five Bermudians who visited the school that day.

“It was the highlight of my trip,” she admits.

“Cuba is a very beautiful country and the school is right in a neighbourhood and they grow their own vegetables and the students get their breakfast and lunch at the school.

“The parents have to work long hours so the children are there at the school all the time.

“The school isn't militant, I thought that would be the case but it isn't.”

Coming from an affluent society, Mrs. Millett was interested to see how the Cubans lived.

She noticed they take nothing for granted.

“When we go into a supermarket here we pick up a five pound box of chicken, but they would pick up a package with two chicken legs in it and that would be for the whole family,” said Mrs. Millett.

“They shop sparingly because they know they can't afford to get as much.

“I went back to the supermarket twice and the first time I went there was a meat counter but no meat.

“I went back on the Friday and there was meat there and they were buying it.

“As I understood it, families don't buy milk after a child goes a certain age.

“When a child is under five they are able to buy milk but when they are over five they don't buy milk.

“For the woman who cleaned my room, I would buy milk and leave it for her because she had a little girl.

“She came back in the evening and said ‘Mam, my daughter says thank you'. It's heart breaking.”

It is common practice for some of the Cubans to open their home as a restaurant for tourists who would go there and pay for a delicious home cooked meal.

“Some of the Cubans themselves may patronise, if they can afford it,” she explained.

“I'm really looking forward to travelling there again, hopefully in October, but if not this year than definitely next year, God willing.

“I've been telling all my friends and a few of them are interested.”

Ms. Millett thinks schools should consider taking class trips to places like Cuba rather than to Disneyland so they can learn other people's culture and appreciate their own more.

“Our children, especially, are so ungrateful and they have so much,” she says.

Mrs. Millett is involved with the Girl Guides and recalls how a recent visit to India by one of the Guiders changed that young girl's life forever.

“She is a different child now, just through travelling. Her whole outlook on life has changed because she saw poverty like she has never seen it before.”

Anyone interested in donating school items for the Cuban children can contact Mrs. Millett at 292-6662.