The Hatuey Project is happy to report that we visited the Pinar del Río warehouse and witnessed the 40,000 pounds of valuable material which we delivered by ship. This essential material, 500 panels (18,000 pounds) of quality sheet metal roofing at 3’x12′ each, 19,200 pounds of concrete, two 12,000-watt electrical generators, windows, plywood, tools and more for Cuba’s post-hurricane housing recovery is because of you! The generosity of hundreds of donors made this possible.
As we spoke with the construction workers and community people in their valiant recovery efforts, supported by the Cuban government, we saw their creative determination to rise from the post-hurricane ruins.
Hurricane Ian devastated Pinar del Río province and larger region, causing damage or destruction to 102,000 homes. All of the productive capacity of the region’s famed tobacco industry was wiped out completely. This means a huge loss in future income for the country. Agriculture was also deeply affected, with most crops wiped out.
The Hatuey Project concentrates on medical aid donations. Since our founding last June, we have already delivered prenatal vitamins and other essential medicines for Cuba’s maternal homes last July, brought vital medicines for burn patients after the enormous Supertanker oil fire in Matanzas in late August. Then, after Hurricane Ian, (a category 3 hurricane that changed to a category 4 as it passed over the island), we believed it an urgency to join the international efforts to help the Cuban people recover. Doctors we have met with told us that they consider the recovery of housing for the Cuban families in that area to be an absolute necessity for health.
As we visited the warehouse where the goods are stored before free distribution to the population for their home reconstruction, we especially thanked the organizations and hundreds of individuals who gave so generously to this latest delivery — The Peoples Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, el Movimiento Hostosiano en Solidaridad with Cuba of Puerto Rico, the Mexico Solidarity Network, the Western Sydney Committee in Solidarity with Cuba, and many more people who made this possible.
