Fundraising for the purchase of medical supplies and food is now one of the top priorities for solidarity groups in the United States mobilized to support Cuba after the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa.
“Melissa struck with fury. We respond with solidarity,” said the appeal from the Pan American Medical Association, comprised here of graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana.
The appeal emphasized that the hydrometeorological phenomenon impacted the Caribbean nation on October 29 as a Category 3 hurricane with strong winds and torrential rains.
“Entire provinces—Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Granma, and Guantánamo—are devastated. Families have been displaced. Clinics are overwhelmed. The storm has passed, but the emergency has only just begun,” the statement added.
The group noted that “this is not just a natural disaster. It is the collapse of an already fragile system. Cuban hospitals were already lacking sutures, antibiotics, and basic wound care. Now, they face a surge of trauma patients without the supplies to treat them.”
Meanwhile, on social media, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin wrote that “we are heading to Cuba to deliver humanitarian aid after Hurricane Melissa, the third worst in the island’s history.”
“But the real relief lies in ending the US blockade that prevents Cuba from rebuilding. Lift the sanctions! Remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism! Let Cuba live!” the activist posted on her X account.
For its part, The People’s Forum launched a similar appeal for aid on the same online platform. “Hurricane Melissa has devastated Cuba. We are urgently sending food, water, and essential supplies to those affected.”
The New York-based organization aims to raise $50,000 to purchase supplies, the message stated.
In an article, Mark Friedman, a member of the Los Angeles Hands Off Cuba Committee, acknowledged the island’s decades of experience dealing with hurricanes.
“Its civil defense system is organized to evacuate masses of people in vulnerable communities in an organized and safe manner and, consequently, is recognized as a global model,” he emphasized.
But Cuba’s ability to respond to the devastation of Hurricane Melissa is severely hampered by the limitations imposed by the embargo, Friedman added.
Melissa made landfall in Cuba on the same day that the UN General Assembly voted for the thirty-third time on a resolution calling for an end to the unilateral blockade imposed more than six decades ago by the US government — whether Democratic or Republican — on the good example of the Cuban Revolution.
IMAGE CREDIT: The People’s Forum in New York City is one of the main organizations shipping aid to Cuba
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
