Hurricane Medical Relief in Cuba

Since our initial donations began arriving in Cuba last year, we have been coordinating with the Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organization office in Havana to target receiving institutions and discuss materials most needed. In April of this year, Global Links staff performed site visits to three of the targeted provinces, Las Tunas, Camaguay and Pinar del Rio visiting hospitals, primary care facilities and senior care homes. It was decided that our next shipments will be concentrated in Las Tunas and Camaguay provinces where we plan to address needs in senior care facilities, pediatric and general hospitals in each province. For example, we are planning to upgrade the maternity area of one of the hospitals with equipment and furnishings. A psychiatric hospital in Las Tunas suffered severe water damage when the windows blew out. They need furnishings for their patient recreation room. In April and May 2009, Global Links made three shipments to Cuba which included 195,000 pairs of sterile surgical gloves which will be provided to multiple hospitals in the country, and 2 containers of office furnishings (including filing cabinets, desks, chairs, storage cabinets, chart racks). There is an intense need for these basic furnishings as many were damaged during the storms, and most have not been replaced in 40+ years. We are planning additional shipments this year to the targeted provinces. Your support is greatly appreciated. Please leave us comments on our project below- we value your input!

Working in collaboration with the World Health Organization/ Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Cuban Ministry of Health, Global Links sent six containers of urgently needed medical supplies, equipment and furnishings to assist hospitals in regions most impacted by the hurricanes. The last four containers were shipped within the final weeks of October and will conclude our hurricane relief efforts for the year.

These donations would not have been possible without the special funding Global Links received to support medical aid for Cuban healthcare facilities affected by the hurricanes. Four of the shipments were sponsored by the Department of Emergency Preparedness at PAHO in Washington, DC. The other shipments were sponsored by individual donors from across the United States, Canada, England and Australia and with funds earmarked for the Institute of Nephrology.

We would like to thank the following organizations for their help in raising awareness and funds for our efforts: US Cuba Sister Cities Association, Center for Democracy in the Americas and GlobalGiving.

We have raised over $21,000 to date from individual donors like you. In addition to allowing us to make additional shipments of materials, these generous donations allowed us to procure items such as new blood pressure units and new hospital grade mattresses.

The six shipments included: 54 hospital beds, 30 gurneys, over 100 chairs, IV poles and walkers, as well as other furnishings. In addition, we sent over 1,800 boxes of unused disposable medical supplies. Examples include: syringes, gauze, gloves, specialized surgical supplies, IV supplies and hospital linens. Specific items were chosen based on the needs indicated in a report on the damages and the strategic recovery plan communicated to us by PAHO and the Ministry of Health in Cuba.

Contributing to the quality of these shipments, Global Links also received many in-kind donations from various companies and institutions such as University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Quality Medical Relief, Riverside Medical Center (NJ), Standard Textile and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.

The combined monetary value of these six shipments is over $1.5 million.

We will continue our efforts to help the affected regions recover from the hurricanes. Global Links staff will be making an assessment trip to Cuba in the near future. We know the needs will be considerable. With your help, we hope to send another eight to ten shipments in 2009.