Features
Peter Jacobson Named CARES Director
Southern Transport
Southern Transport
Vermont Project Delivers AIDS Meds to Cuba
by Euan Bear
Stowe
– It becomes clear very quickly when talking to Brian Stoops that
the high point of his life so far occurred last January. That's when he
handed a packet representing $15,000 worth of HIV/AIDS medications to
a man named Leudis at a clinic in Santiago de Cuba.
The medications were donated by people
living with HIV/AIDS who had changed drugs, or by the families, housemates,
and partners of patients who had died. Stoops, who works with Vermont
CARES as a peer advocate, organized the collection of meds that would
otherwise have ended up in landfills or flushed down the toilet, and then
he raised the money to go.
The trip, he said, wasn't the first
time Vermont medical supplies had been sent to Cuba. In fact, since 2003,
Caribbean Medical Transport (CMT) has delivered more than ten 40-foot
shipping containers of supplies, vitamins and clothing to the island nation
declared pariah by the U.S. government. The supplies go to Havana as well
as to eastern and rural areas of Cuba. Each container holds about 4,000
pounds of supplies, and it costs about $2500 to send it south. But last
January's trip was the first time the group was able to send a delegation
with the shipment.
"The Cubans are the friendliest,
nicest people I've ever met," Stoops declared, "even the police.
They said they didn't have anything against Americans, they know it's
just their wacky government and our wacky government butting heads."
Marisha Kazeniac, the licensed travel
coordinator for the group, was also impressed by "the immediate rapport
between the folks in Cuba and the folks from Vermont," she said.
The January trip was not her first time traveling to Cuba, more like her
15th. CMT is a homegrown Vermont project, she added, and its director,
Rick Schwag, lives in Lyndonville.
Stoops said one of the most urgent
needs of the Cubans is lubricated, U.S.-made condoms. "They don't
like to use Chinese made no-lube condoms. They say they're inferior,"
Stoops said. Since his return from the January trip, Stoops has made contact
with a condom maker, Global Manufacturing, which donated 1,000 lubricated
condoms for the next shipment.
The group, Caribbean Medical Transport
of Vermont, is licensed by the United States Department of Commerce to
deliver its medical supplies to communities throughout Cuba. It is organizing
a new trip to Cuba to assist in medical projects including continued work
with the AIDS community, according to Kazeniac. Individuals interested
in traveling to Cuba with CMT in July must have experience in the health
field, (including but not limited to experience with AIDS work), experience
in the delivery of humanitarian aid, or technical expertise related to
the delivery of goods through CMT.
The July trip is focused on visiting
health care facilities, meeting with handicapped and HIV-positive people
who are supported by CMT donations, and determining what additional needs
the group might be able to meet. As a follow-up to this visit, CMT will
send up to 20,000 pounds of medicine and supplies to the facilities and
individuals the group visits. Travel is scheduled for July 8-15 and space
is limited.
For more information on the project and qualifications for travel,
contact Caribbean Medical Transport at 802-864-4334, or 802-626-5578,
cuba@together.net or www.cubacaribe.com