Halifax volunteers fill 40-foot container with medical supplies for Cuba

Volunteers in Halifax spent the day packing supplies into a 40’ container – bound for Cuba.

A group of Halifax volunteers worked around the clock to load a 40-foot container with much-need medical supplies for Cuba, which is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

“There are 11,000 pregnant women waiting for an ultrasound and can’t have one because there’s no electricity in the hospitals. 106,000 surgeries have been put off, including 10,000 for children. Why? Because of the lack of fuel in the hospitals,” says John Kirk with the Nova Scotia Cuba Association.

Volunteers from the association helped fill the container, as well as Nova Scotia Community College students and postal workers.

Together they filled the container with more than 100 musical instruments and 75 bicycles.

“Doctors and nurses have to hitchhike to school and get to work. So what we’re doing is providing them with transportation, but also medicine. Medicine (that is) very necessary in Cuba at the moment,” says Kirk.

The crisis in Cuba comes after U.S. President Donald Trump put up a blockade around the country.

“Basically, he said that any ships that came to Cuba bringing fuel would have massive tariffs put upon them. And there would be further measures. As a result, there was only one ship bringing petroleum in four months that came to Cuba,” Kirk says.

Dozens of Maritimers have donated items to help Cuba.

“Nova Scotia and Cuba have got very, very close ties. The very first consulate of Cuba in Canada was not in Montreal or Toronto, or Ottawa or Halifax, it was in Yarmouth,” says Kirk. “Cuba was the first country when the last Ebola outbreak took place a decade ago to send doctors there. Cuba has done its part for the international community. So it’s time now for us to reciprocate.”

The container will be trucked to the Port of Halifax, then put on a ship where it’s expected to arrive in Cuba’s capital in a few weeks.

Kirk hopes it will serve as a reminder to Cubans they haven’t been forgotten.

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