The Work of MEMO in the Cuban Hospitals
In January 2004, Dr. Jerome Harvey, while working on restoring a church's children's camp in Cuba, met a young Cuban physician, Dr. Aurora Riera. Dr. Aurora, from the rural city of Placetas in the Villa Clara province, was very enthusiastic about the idea of Canadian hospital equipment being sent to the old worn out hospital in Placetas.
Over the next two years, the hospital was completely revitalized.
The operating rooms transitioned from 1950s equipment to mid-to-late 90s equipment. This included anaesthetic machines, operating room xray equipment, operating tables, cardiac monitors and defibrillators, and instrumentation for doing laproscopic and arthroscopic surgery (minimal access surgery).
Even the hospital laundry and kitchen had new equipment installed. 
120 modern comfortable beds replaced beds from the 1930s.
The hospital was computerized and a whole new attitude of hope and energy developed.
Once this was completed, the general hospital in Remedios, a historic city some 40 kilometers further east down the highway, began to receive equipment and supplies from MEMO. The following year, the general hospital in Caibarien received large amounts of "new" equipment from MEMO. Caibarien is 7 km east of Remedios on the north coast of Cuba and is the entrance point for tourists going to the offshore resorts of Santa Maria.
In 2008, at the request of the Villa Clara Minister of Health, MEMO Cuba began collaborating with the Provincial Cancer Centre in the 400 bed Celestino hospital in the capital city, Santa Clara. MEMO provided all the furnishings for a 12 bed palliative care ward and have since begun providing sophisticated cancer diagnosing xray equipment.
Meanwhile, MEMO provided furnishings for the homes for the aged in the communities they are working in.
The work in the provincial capital Santa Clara (population 220,000) has included supplying all the rehabilitation equipment for the province's Childrens' Centre.
MEMO is still in the process of supplying furnishings for the 80 bed hospital for severely physically and mentally incapacitated children.
In 20
09, MEMO has turned its attention to the last of the province's general hospitals in Sagua, about 80 km west of Santa Clara.
This means that MEMO is now working throughout the entire province of Villa Clara (population 880,000) in all of the five general hospitals, homes for the aged, childrens' clinics and specialized clinics.