The Public Health Directorate of the Segundo Frente municipality, in the province of Santiago de Cuba, organized a public event last Sunday to receive a container of donations sent by the American organization Helping Hands For Cuba, as posted on its Facebook page by the organization itself.
“Today, May 25, we received the container donated by Helping Hands For Cuba to the municipality of Segundo Frente,” reported Salud Pública Segundo Frente in the post, accompanied by the hashtags #Cubanoestasola and #cubasalva.
The Segundo Frente municipality, nestled in the Sierra Maestra, is a rural area with difficult access that faces serious shortages in health care, transportation, and supplies, making the direct arrival of this type of assistance at the local level especially significant.
Helping Hands For Cuba is a charitable organization whose mission includes supporting people with disabilities in Cuba through personal care, nutrition, supplies, and medical equipment.
The arrival of the container occurs against the backdrop of an increasing flow of international humanitarian aid to Santiago de Cuba, although not all of it reaches its final recipients.
In April, Spain distributed a thousand basic food and hygiene kits transported in a 40-foot container, benefiting around 5,000 people.
That same month, the Cuba Soberana Humanitarian Project of Belgium announced the shipment of its fifth container of medical supplies to Santiago de Cuba and Jiguaní, including oxygen masks, surgical materials, medications, and wheelchairs.
In this month, Cáritas reported that five additional containers had arrived at the port of Santiago de Cuba in April, in addition to a ship with seven containers received in February.
However, not all the aid that reaches the island gets to those who need it most.
On April 7, the UN warned that about 170 containers with humanitarian goods that had already arrived in Cuba, valued at approximately 6.3 million dollars, were not reaching the final beneficiaries due to a lack of fuel for internal distribution.
In that context, the direct delivery to the municipality of Segundo Frente managed by Helping Hands For Cuba represents an example of aid that truly reaches the community level, in an area where the Health Directorate of Santiago de Cuba has had to reinforce clinical-surgical brigades to ensure medical care due to the shortage of fuel and transportation.
In May, the Diocese of Palm Beach and Catholic Charities also launched a collection campaign to support families in Cuba linked to Helping Hands Cuba, suggesting that the flow of donations to the island could continue in the coming months.
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