Open Arms returns to Cuba: “I don’t know what is worse, bombing a hospital or leaving it without power”

Solar panels brought to Cuba by Open Arms helped doctors operate on a two-year-old girl with a facial fracture, according to an account shared during the NGO’s welcome ceremony in Havana.

The organization’s sailing vessel Astral arrived Sunday evening from Cancún, Mexico, carrying nearly seven tonnes of humanitarian aid donated by Mexican civil society. The shipment includes medical materials, powdered milk and almost three tonnes of equipment and supplies for hemodialysis, as well as school materials and other basic necessities.

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Once you see what is happening, you can no longer say you did not know

The supplies will go again to the Juan Manuel Márquez Pediatric Hospital and, for the first time, to the Abelardo Buch López Institute of Nephrology. The arrival marked Open Arms’ second trip to Havana in just over a month.

Founder Óscar Camps credited the entire crew and the donors for the solar panels. During his first visit in July, he saw what he described as the strain on Cuba’s health system, including children receiving manual ventilation and patients being carried up seven floors because elevators were unavailable.

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I don’t know what is worse, bombing a hospital or leaving it without power

“Once you see what is happening, you can no longer say you did not know,” Camps told EFE. He said Open Arms would return to Mexico after the expedition to seek donations for another shipment. “As long as we can do something, we will,” he said. “There is always time to go home.”

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As long as we can do something, we will. There is always time to go home

Camps described Cuba’s prolonged crisis as a siege and compared its severity with the situation in Gaza. “I don’t know what is worse, bombing a hospital or leaving it without power,” he said.

Yagen Pomares, Havana’s director general of health, said the humanitarian assistance “is making a difference,” although shortages continue. Cuba has faced a fuel blockade by the United States since January, along with sanctions that have affected the transport of containers carrying medicines. The state has also struggled to guarantee the production of medical supplies and drugs.

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is making a difference