Volunteers from Cáritas Camagüey began the distribution of U.S. humanitarian aid on Saturday in the rural community of Lugareño, in the municipality of Minas, where 300 families received food and hygiene supply kits as part of the 100 million dollars assistance program that the United States government allocated to the Cuban people, as stated on the Cáritas Cuba website.
The shipment arrived on Thursday at the Ignacio Agramonte International Airport in Camagüey, with the presence of Monsignor Wilfredo Pino Estévez, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Camagüey, and María Rosa Rodríguez Aguilar, Director of Cáritas Camagüey. During that reception, a total of 700 modules were unloaded: 300 destined for Lugareño and 400 for families in Nuevitas.
Father Reynaldo, parish vicar, accompanied the distribution event in Lugareño alongside the local team of volunteers and some staff members from Cáritas Camagüey.
The volunteers had received prior training to ensure an organized and transparent delivery, and they had already identified the most vulnerable families in the community according to previously established criteria.
Each module includes basic food items —rice, beans, oil, sugar, spaghetti, sardines, and tuna— along with hygiene products such as soap, toothpaste, and toothbrushes.
Among the prioritized beneficiaries are elderly individuals living alone, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, people with disabilities, and families with children under five years old in vulnerable situations.
According to the spokesperson for Cáritas Camagüey, Yurguit Estrada Santos, "the event took place in an atmosphere filled with the gratitude of those who, with great simplicity and the warmth of rural people, opened the doors of their homes to those bringing relief for their most essential needs for food, hygiene, and water storage."
Lugareño is the first delivery point for the shipment received in Camagüey, and its distribution marks the arrival of the program to this province in the central-eastern part of the Island.
The program operates exclusively through the network of the Catholic Church —Cáritas Cuba and Catholic Relief Services (CRS)— without the mediation of the Cuban regime. Of the total 100 million dollars, 60 million are channeled through this route, while the remaining 40 million are distributed through other independent organizations.
The distribution in Camagüey is part of the expansion of the program to five provinces —Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Cienfuegos, Matanzas, and Pinar del Río— announced by the United States Embassy in Havana in mid-September.
The initiative began in July 2026 in the Archdiocese of Havana, with deliveries in Bejucal and Alquízar, and it gradually expanded. By mid-September, a shipment arrived in Santa Clara for the Diocese of Cienfuegos, where about 50 volunteers distributed 700 food kits and 700 hygiene kits in a single day.
The overall goal of the program is to reach between 100,000 and 120,000 families across the country, according to the data from the assistance plan designed by Washington and coordinated with Cáritas Cuba.
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