About Us
MEMO:Cuba began in 2004 under the initiatives of Jerome Harvey, a retired doctor in Thunder Bay, ON who was curious as to what would be done with the no longer needed medical equipment from a recently closed hospital in the city. This curiosity led to the establishment of MEMO. Read an article written by Jerome in 2005 for a medical journal in order to get the full history behind the establishment of the MEMO:Cuba project.
Today, MEMO:Cuba consists of a group of Thunder Bay and Canadian volunteers who continuously seek to acquire, remove, pack, ship, reinstall, and support two hospitals in the Villa Clara province of Cuba (see picture of Placetas Hospital right and click here to read more about these and other facilities that MEMO is involved with in Cuba). These hospitals are in desperate need of modernization. Redundant equipment comes from hospitals, homes for the aged and other health care agencies mainly in the Thunder Bay District but recently as far as Kelowna, BC and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. These supplies are shipped via sea containers to Cuba (read about the shipping process!) where they are distributed and installed in the hospitals. Volunteer teams of medical professionals from Canada help with the implementation and instruction for usage of the new equipment.
The MEMO:Cuba project is a non-profit organization entirely dependent on the donations and provisions of individual donors and organizations. The work that has already been done would not have been possible without the help and cooperation from the following organizations:
- The Evangelical Free Church of Canada
- The City of Thunder Bay Homes for The Aged
- Saint Joseph's Care Group Thunder Bay
- The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
- Ministry of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation (MINVEC, Cuba)
- Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP, Cuba)
- as well as local churches, service clubs and individual donors.
If you are interested in getting involved with the work of MEMO, click here. Click on Shipping Containers to learn about MEMO's shipping process.
MEMO Progress
By the end of 2009, MEMO will have shipped 37 ocean containers with contents valued at $24 million dollars.
It will have facilitated 15 
medical/surgical/technical teams to Cuba. Team members pay all their own expenses.
MEMO is currently working in seven hospitals, two clinics, seven homes for the aged and the regional cancer centre. It has instituted laproscopic cholecystectomies and arthoscopic surgery in Placetas hospital. It has shipped over 600 computers and collaborated in setting up computer systems in hospitals. MEMO has sent over eight tons of bed linens for use in health care institutions. It has instituted the only functioning breast screening program in Cuba. It has provided a computerized clinical laboratory in Placetas hospital. It has furnished ICU equipment to five of the hospitals it works in. MEMO has equipped a children's clinic for neurolgically compromised children in the capital city of Villa Clara. It is furnishing an 80 bed hospital for severely physically and mentally incapacitated children in Villa Clara.
MEMO has also collaborated with the provincial cancer centre and palliative care ward at the Celestino Hospital in Santa Clara.
It has already provided endoscopes for cancer diagnosis in three hospitals.
It has renewed the laundry facilities of three hospitals.
It provides audio equipment for hearing impaired children.
It has carried over $200,000 of pharmaceutics to Cuba in team members luggage.
And finally, it has provided over $250,000 worth of ostomy supplies.