Archives - 2007 Newsletters/Updates
MEMO Cuba has been given a difficult task working in Cuba. But we have also been given the strength, wisdom and thanks to many of you the money to carry out the task.
My recent visit to Cuba with Steve Neufeld the Latin America director of the EFCCM was well worthwhile. We spent two days travelling with the secretary to the president of the province of Villa Clara looking at some of the sites that need our help and some that have already been helped. The Cuban officials were most hospitable.
It was so gratifying travelling up into the mountains near Santa Clara along winding roads through gorgeous scenary eventually reaching a remote maternity clinic of eight beds. Two of the original beds were still there. Army cot style beds with one inch foam mattresses allowing the springs to poke through.
But six of the beds were modern hospital beds with thick comfortable six inch matresses on them. A gift of MEMO from Kelowna B.C. Seeing several women resting comfortably in these beds after delivering babies made all our struggles in MEMO worthwhile.
In the capital city of Santa Clara we visited the Facial Prosthesis Clinic. Here they make noses and ears and other facial parts to replace those lost to disease and injury.They literally restore a life to those so horribly disfigured. However the director of the clinic pointed out they were down to their last jar of silicone elastomer used in making the facial replacement parts. On their own, they have no hope of obtaining more. We promised to see what we could do. Our reality at present is that we have gone $8000 in debt to ship the last two containers to empty the warehouse we were using so we would not have to pay rent. However we cannot meet even a critical need such as this among many others until this debt is settled. Can you help?
Good news is the construction of a mobile breast screening clinic by volunteers here in Thunder Bay. See our new web page that gives details.
We also have exciting news about our MEMO Cuba Celebration Weekend, October 19 to 21st. His exellency the Cuban Ambassador to Canada Ernesto Senti and the Honourable Jose Ramon Ruiz the Villa Clara Minister of Health along with Dra Aurora Riera will be joining us for an Evening of Latin Music in celebration of MEMO Cuba Friday October 19th. here in Thunder Bay. We hope you can join us. The venue is Redwood auditorium and the evening includes a gormet dinner and latin music by Flaminco Caravan, Wayne and Sonja Faulkner and Kim Erickson. Tickets are $35. Watch for details on obtaining tickets in local media, this website or phone 767-7514.
We have been so blessed in Canada in so many ways including good health care. It is with grateful hearts we share these blessings with those not so fortunate. By reading this you have begun a first step in being part MEMO Cuba. We invite you to continue the journey.
Jerome Harvey
HERE IS SOME EXCITING NEWS!
MEMO:Cuba is initiating a pilot program to bring mobile breast screening to rural women of Placetas Municipality in Cuba. My name is Marilyn Shaver, and Dr. Jerome Harvey has recently handed to me the reins of MEMO Mobile Mammography Project. We call it 3M for short. It has nothing to do with tape or sticky pads?what we usually think of when we hear 3M?but it has to do with ?sticking on? a much needed health care program that will save lives of women in Cuba. At present, by the time a woman feels a lump in her breast cure is greatly reduced.
We have an opening to increase the opportunity for women to have preventative screening done as they try to win the battle against cancer. Due to the incredible donation of a portable mammogram machine from Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, we are now constructing the first mobile unit for use in the area around Placetas. This will multiply the effectiveness of the new Breast Screening Clinic that MEMO has already donated to Placetas Hospital.
I am thrilled to be off and running with this exciting project. A trailer chassis has been donated, and with some extension and reinforcement, should serve our needs. We will be building an air-conditioned box/house to contain the components of the mammogram machine, a dark room, change rooms and a reception/records area. In Cuba, we will have to set up electrical hook-ups at the clinic sites. If you have resources that would be useful to this project, or questions please contact us at infomemo@tbaytel.net
Hi Folks,
Our February MEMO Cuba team has just returned home. It was amazing to stand in the Placetas laundry and see washing machines working that only three months ago rested in the basement laundry of Thunder Bay's now closed McKellar hospital. Now the Placetas hospital operating room will have plenty of clean drapes and scrub suits!
A Thunder Bay electrical engineer and a Salmon Arm B.C. industrial equipment consultant worked long hours with Cuban engineers and mechanics to make this dream happen. Canadian expertise and Cuban ingenuity made this a reality. As well the operator/service manual for the machine was translated into Spanish by our interpreter to insure the machine has a long and useful life.
While this was going on, our energetic paint team turned dark and dingy hallways and rooms into bright attractive areas, using 30 gallons of ( some times) watered down, sunshiny yellow paint. Hospital painters and even some bystanders grabbed brushes and joined in the effort. Working in cheerful surroundings lifts the spirits of the hospital workers and gives them new dignity and pride. More painting teams are planned, so watch for information.
Meanwhile, our xray consultant Erwin Stuka from Alberta, and I toured various sites to check on the functioning of xray machines and other equipment we have provided. At the Milian hospital in the capital city Villa Clara we discovered the only mammography machine for a population of 880,000 has not been used for a year due to a lack of developing chemicals for the automatic film processor. With your designated gifts for this project we will try to ship these life saving chemicals in our April 14th container.
Our Placetas breast screening project is slowly inching ahead. The director has promised to keep me updated with pictures of progress which I will share with you.
The Placetas hospital is now almost completely renewed. The laboratory, ultrasonography, xray, operating rooms, patients wards are renewed. The laundry is almost done. The kitchen has the new equipment (stove,oven, sink etc) but needs to be installed. The hospital van makes transport immediate and easy. The computerization project is very impressive with hospital staff being trained and using the computers properly. Javier, the Cuban computer engineer still has to get them networked but this is proceeding well.
I am very impressed with how all the hospital staff has worked together to make this renewal project successful. MEMO will continue to provide repair parts and consumables to try and keep everything working.
The question is: What should MEMO do next?
I had the pleasure of travelling to visit the 130 bed Remedios Hospital. Remedios is a half hour drive in the municipality next to Placetas. It serves a population of 160,000.
The hospital was very clean(Our visit was unannounced) and the staff appeared energetic and anxious that we should collaberate with them in the way we had with Placetas. They have two xray machines neither is functioning. A Bulgarian machine can not be repaired. The Picker requires a $6000 to $10,000 xray tube replaced. They have an acute need of beds. One 20 bed ward is closed because of no adequate beds. Many other needs were identified. We would like to begin a REMEDIOS RENEWAL PROJECT similiar to what we have done in Placetas.
This can only be done with the continued donation of redundant hospital equipment from Canadian Health Care Institutions. It can only be done with the continued hours and hours of labour our volunteers so joyfully provide. And it can only be done with the continued generous financial gifts of donars like you.
My dream is that MEMO will be able to continue to reflect the love of Canadians and God for the Cuban people. Thanks for making it possible.
Jerome Harvey