Of Yartiza Millan Mizrahi has become one of the best known, most sought after and most liked persons in her home town of Monte Verde, a mountain farming community in the islands easternmost province.

As I visited Monte Verde, the 24-year-old Yaritza was finishing a house-by-house list of families without refrigerators and those with old energy inefficient televisions. Catching her breath from the walk up and down hills, she told Granma, "I have learned not to waste any time when carrying out tasks that benefit the population and to help make the benefits of the Revolutions social programs reach the families quickly."

A graduate of the 2002/2003 class at the Social Worker Training School in Santiago de Cuba, Yaritza says she is happy to be assisting this modest and hard working people that saw her grow up.

She said that among her jobs is to visit young people who are not working or studying, people with disabilities, single mothers, former inmates and to help out with the Energy Revolution program.

Yaritza is considered one of the outstanding social workers of the province, especially within the Plan Turquino Plan for the mountainous zones.

"Each time I am able to help a family or see an improvement in the life of a citizen, I feel heartened and grow as a young revolutionary," said the fifth year student in Social Communication at the university branch in Palenque.

The nationwide social workers program in Cuba began seven years ago at the request of President Fidel Castro.

"Being a social worker has allowed me to touch the souls of people and for them touch mine. I feel part of the efforts of the country to assure that nobody is left unprotected, not even in the most remote places.

"My profession also gives me the opportunity to obtain a university degree, prepares me to raise my son and to help my mother," said this lover of her communitys green slopes.

On a daily basis, Yaritza takes a dose of that love to the families that surround her.

Source: By Jorge L. Merencio Cautin, Granma