Cuban Student Program
Diocesan Press Service. January 7, 1964 [XVII-3]
The question is often asked, "why is the Episcopal Church involved in providing scholarships for Cuban refugee students ?" The Church is committed to education and without such aid most of them would not be in school this year.
These Cubans sought the Church's help through the South Florida student committee which has declared its continuing interest in the students. It plans to help them by enlisting other resources so they can complete their education.
There is more to this than just sponsoring 44 Cuban refugee students in college. The Episcopal Church has become for these Cuban refugee youth the one hope in an otherwise hopeless situation.
For Raphael, college means home and friends, people who love him and are concerned for him. Last Christmas Day he walked the streets of Miami alone. His parents in Cuba, no relatives in this country - or Maria whose parents were both executed in Cuba. What hope is there for her to secure a college education? Through the Presiding Bishop's fund for World Relief we are giving supplementary aid which makes it possible to sponsor 44 Cuban refugee students. They ask no favors, only the opportunity to develop their talents in a free land, hopeful, desperately hopeful, that they will be able to go back to their own country.
There is no such thing as freedom unless there is opportunity, and so the Episcopal Church has undertaken to offer these young people freedom by opening the door of opportunity for them. It is an exciting thing to talk with them and learn how they have come to see the Christian Church in a whole new dimension.
When you give to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, you help these Cuban students, assist in the Cuban resettlement program; as well as provide aid such as that given the recent hurricane victims in Haiti and to earthquake victims in Iran and Skopje through Church World Service. Send in your check!