JustGiving & Crowdfunder UK stop blocking humanitarian aid to save lives in Cuba

Cuba coronavirus vaccination

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This petition is to demand that the companies JustGiving and Crowdfunding UK stop blocking humanitarian aid intended to save lives in Cuba. Both companies have closed down our fundraising campaign set up to buy medical supplies, including syringes, to help Cuba’ vaccination campaign against COVID-19. Crowdfunding UK closed the fundraising page with £731 raised and JustGiving with almost £2000. While JustGiving has confirmed its action was because Cuba is 'one of the countries under [US] sanctions'; Crowdfunding UK has yet to provide a clear answer but made reference to issues with Stripe, an US company they use as a payment provider.

Imposing sanctions on UK interests for dealings with Cuba is illegal under UK law. In 1996, the British Parliament approved the Protection of Trading Interests Act, Order No. 3171 on ‘The Extraterritorial US Legislation’, which makes it an convictable offence to comply with the extraterritorial imposition of US sanctions against Cuba, among other countries.

Furthermore, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the United Nations has urged governments’ imposing sanctions on other countries to ‘urgently lift, suspend or minimise’ this type of coercive measure that prevent affected nations receiving medicines and medical supplies, food, and fuels.

We under undersigned demand that JustGiving and Crowdfunder UK stop blocking humanitarian aid to save lives in Cuba.

We ask the British government to take measures, in accordance with UK law, to penalise JustGiving and Crowdfunder UK, and all other US companies, applying the extraterritorial US legislation against British interests. 

What you can do to support this petition:

  1. Sign the petition
  2. Send a letter to Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo. and Crowdfunder UK
  3. Send a letter to Dominic Raab, Minister for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo.
  4. Donate to the campaign.

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JustGiving y Crowdfunder UK bloquearon la ayuda humanitaria para salvar vidas en Cuba

Esta petición es para exigir que las compañías JustGiving y Crowdfunder UK dejen de bloquear la ayuda humanitaria con el propósito de salvar vidas en Cuba. Ambas empresas han cerrado nuestra campaña de recaudación de fondos creada para comprar suministros médicos, incluidas jeringuillas, para ayudar en la campaña de vacunación de Cuba contra COVID-19. Crowdfunder UK cerró la página de recaudación de fondos con £731 recaudadas y JustGiving con casi £2000. Si bien JustGiving ha confirmado que su acción se debe a que Cuba es 'uno de los países bajo sanciones [de Estados Unidos]'; Crowdfunder UK aún no ha dado una respuesta clara, pero hizo referencia a problemas con Stripe, la empresa estadounidense que utilizan como proveedor de pagos.

La imposición de sanciones a los intereses del Reino Unido por tratos con Cuba es ilegal según la ley del Reino Unido. En 1996, el Parlamento británico aprobó la Ley de Protección de Intereses Comerciales, Orden No. 3171 sobre ‘La Legislación Extraterritorial de EE. UU.’, Que convierte en delito condenable cumplir con la imposición extraterritorial de sanciones de EE. UU. contra Cuba, entre otros países.

Además, en el contexto de la pandemia de Covid-19, las Naciones Unidas han instado a los gobiernos que imponen sanciones a otros países, para que 'levanten, suspendan o minimicen urgentemente' este tipo de medidas coercitivas que impiden que las naciones afectadas reciban medicamentos y suministros médicos, alimentos, y combustibles.

Los abajo firmantes exigimos que JustGiving y Crowdfunder UK dejen de bloquear la ayuda humanitaria para salvar vidas en Cuba.

Pedimos al gobierno británico que tome medidas, en conformidad con las leyes británicas, y penalise a JustGiving y Crowdfunder UK, y a todas las demás empresas estadounidenses, que aplican la legislación estadounidense extraterritorial contra los intereses británicos.

Qué puede hacer para apoyar esta petición:

  1. Firma la petición
  2. Envíe una carta a Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo. and Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo.
  3. Envíe una carta a Dominic Raab, Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo. «Foreign & Commonwealth Office»
  4. Donar en nuestra campaña 

Letter to President Joe Biden

cuba usa

President of the United States of America Mr Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

NW Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President Biden:

We followed the election for the 46th President of the United States of America hoping for changes in the midst of this terrible pandemic and an increasing erosion of human values during the Trump administration.

Our countries have a long history of tension as generations of Cubans have chosen to stand for our identity, our independence and sovereignty. However, we expect that future relationships between both countries could be based on what we have in common rather than what makes us different, and always on the basis of mutual respect.

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The effect of the us blockade on Cuba Health System - Dr Valia Rodrigez

Cuba Resists

Cuba Resists! Trump, the blockade and the US election.

On Thursday 29 October, four days before the US elections, Rock Around the Blockade (www.ratb.org.uk) hosted an important and informative online event called ‘Cuba Resists! Trump, the Blockade and the US Elections’. Over 250 participants from Britain and many countries around the world heard from a fantastic line-up of speakers who gave presentations before answering audience questions.

British academic nominates Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Contingent for the Nobel Peace Prize.

nobel peace prize cuba

Dr Helen Yaffe is a Lecturer in Economic and Social History and the University of Glasgow, and author of the recently published book, We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World, Yale University Press, 2020. She adds her voice to the growing international call for the Cuban medics to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.


Nobel Peace Prize nomination for the Henry Reeve International Medical Contingent

In Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Contingents, the foundational aspirations of the Nobel Prize are met: ‘those who have done the most, or the best work for fraternity between nations.’

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen the international community fracture; Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Contingent has offered a counterexample, exemplifying the benefits of global healthcare cooperation. On 21 March 2020, 10 days after the World Health Organisation declared the SARS-Cov2 virus to be a pandemic, 53 Cuban medics, specialists in disaster response and disease control, arrived in Lombardy, Italy, at that time the epicentre of the pandemic, to assist local healthcare authorities. They were the first brigade of the Henry Reeve Contingent formed specifically to combat Covid-19 overseas, and the first to provide medical assistance in Europe.

By 22 September, the Henry Reeve Contingent had sent 3,700 Cuban medical specialists, organised into 46 medical brigades, to treat Covid-19 patients in 39 countries. In 5 months, these Cuban healthcare professionals, 60% of them women, had treated over 350,000 people, saving nearly 10,000 lives. No other country in the world, much less the wealthy nations, has provided anything like the assistance that Cuba has offered by sharing its epidemiological specialists and expertise with people around the world. Most of the beneficiaries of Cuba’s Henry Reeve brigades are poor people in developing countries, who have been left behind in the unseemly scramble by the rich nations to secure themselves PPE, ventilators, drugs and vaccines. Cuba has mobilised resources to offer this assistance despite the deterioration of the island’s economy; the US has tightened sanctions, generating serious shortages, and even blocked Cuban access to the ventilators and PPE needed to fight Covid-19 at home.

The Covid-19 pandemic teaches us the importance of international collaboration in a world so globalised that all our lives are intertwined. It teaches us that public health is a priority; a precondition to peace and security. A Nobel Peace Prize would reflect a new global awareness about the importance of healthcare & solidarity.

Here is the letter which accompanied the nomination:

We did it! Thanks to everyone who helped

cubanos en uk

English | Español

The association Cubanos en UK thanks all the people and organizations that contributed to the collection of more than £25.000 to help patients with COVID-19 in Cuba.

Special thanks are due to Dr Valia Rodriguez and Dr Míriam Palacios, Cuban scientists living in the United Kingdom who have led this campaign.

We also appreciate the messages of solidarity and support that we have received from all the continents of the world. At present, work is underway to buy and send donations to Cuba quickly and safely.


project

crowfunder
Crowdfunder


¡Lo hicimos! Gracias a todos los que ayudaron

La asociación Cubanos en UK agradece a todas las personas y organizaciones que contribuyeron a la recaudación de más £25.000 mil libras esterlinas para ayudar a pacientes con COVID-19 en Cuba.

Con mucho orgullo enviamos un agradecimiento especial a la Dr Valia Rodriguez y Dr Míriam Palacios, científicas cubanas residentes en el Reino Unido quienes han liderado esta campaña.

También agradecemos los números mensajes de solidaridad y apoyo que hemos recibido desde todos los continentes del mundo. En estos momentos se está trabajando para comprar y hacer llegar de forma rápida y segura las donaciones a Cuba.

Cubanos en UK
Viernes 15 de mayo 2020

Building ventilators for patients with COVID-19

Support US

When times are hard, that is when we most need generosity, kindness and compassion. We appeal to that generosity, that makes us better people, as we turn to you in asking for help.  We need to buy components to build ventilators to support COVID-19 patients with medical complications in Cuba.

cuba covid19

As you may know, Cuba cannot buy new ventilators or repair old ones because the companies that previously supplied ventilators to Cuba were acquired by a US company (Vyaire Medical Inc). The US blockade imposed on Cuba forbids any type of trading, even of medical items in the middle of this pandemic. However, people still need to be treated and saved.

 Cuban institutions in health, research and academia have come together to repair old ventilators and to build new devices to support infected patients. Funds from this appeal will support Cuba in building a ventilator using designs that the international community has kindly made available for free on the web. In this way, we can work around the US blockade of Cuba and help sick people.

We – you and me – can save patients in Cuba by contributing to this campaign.

This is an urgent request. We need to raise £25 000 Time is short, people are dying. Please, make your contribution today.

support us button

Dr Miriam Palacios-Callender & Dr Valia Rodriguez-Rodriguez

Dr Miriam Palacios is a Cuban scientist resident in the United Kingdom

Dr Valia Rodriguez is a Cuban medical doctor and academic currently residing in the United Kingdom.

 

The US blockade of Cuba must end!

Cuba covid19 brigada

The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
and First Secretary of State

House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

 

Dear Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP

Subject: Cubans in the UK demand an end to the US blockade.

We, Cuban residents in the United Kingdom, are urging the British government to play a leading role discussing with the United States of America the need to lift the Embargo against our people. The fight against the covid-19 pandemic is stretching resources all over the world and even strong economies are facing enormous challenges. We are sure that you appreciate how hard the NHS is working to look after patients with COVID-19. No country in the world can survive isolated and even worse when a powerful country imposes a blockade which includes medicine and medical products.

Cuba is making an extraordinary effort to face this covid-19 pandemic. The country tries to save lives inside and outside its borders. Currently, all Cuban and foreign patients in Cuba suffering from the symptoms of COVID-19 are treated in hospitals, including thousands of people suspected of incubating this new coronavirus. Medical students guided by their professors are carrying out national surveys to identify the most vulnerable and high-risk people, as part of preventive medicine, a characteristic of the Cuban health system.

The country also guarantees tests to detect this virus, ensuring national coverage, as part of the strategy to control the spread of COVID-19. These tests are carried out by specialist personnel in three laboratories in the country with technology and experts trained in the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine. Following the indications of the World Health Organization, the fieldwork seeks to identify the foci and their contacts to proceed to the isolation of possible carriers of the disease. This effort in the early stages of the spread of COVID-19 ensures that the exposed population is reduced and with it the best use of the resources of the national Public Health system.

Cuban researchers in collaboration with Chinese colleagues, have worked intensively on the production of a new vaccine against the new coronavirus, the clinical trial of which continues and is expected to be completed in 2021. Also, of Cuban production, the recombinant Interferon alfa 2B has been used in clinical trials since the beginning of the pandemic in China and is available for those who require it in Cuba. Other treatments with international success in this pandemic are also applied in Cuba, among them the antiretroviral Kaletra, previously used in the treatment and prevention of AIDS, and the antiviral Oseltamivir, a generic of national production widely used in the treatment and prevention of influenza viruses (A and B). On the other hand, the distribution of the nationally produced homeopathic medicine Prevengho-Vir has begun, as a prophylactic measure to avoid viral contagion.

Cuban epidemiologist and experts broadcast daily to inform and educate the population on the measures to be followed. Cuba has so far sent medical brigades to 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Europe that have requested Cuban assistance to face this pandemic. While Cuban doctors are in different countries providing medical care, the US department continues to urge Cuban doctors to abandon their missions, offering them visas to travel to the United States. They have also issued a circular to third countries asking them to reject the Cuban medical brigades for being allegedly “slaves” of the Cuban government. The international thanks and support that Cuban doctors have received contrast with the political manipulation used by the US administration. Nothing justifies the United States aggressive and inhumane policy towards Cuba.

The pandemic is also having a negative impact on the world economy. In just a few weeks, the most developed countries have taken extraordinary measures to provide essential resources to their populations and avoid the chaos caused by scarcity of resources. Our country has had to face similar circumstances for more than 60 years, not because of natural catastrophes but because of the iron blockade imposed on our country by the United States.

On April 1, a donation of medical supplies from China sent to 24 countries in the region, including Cuba, could not land in Cuba due to the US economic and financial blockade. The European Union and the United Nations have called on the US government to relax sanctions so that countries like Cuba can access the necessary food and medicine during the pandemic. However, the Trump administration continues to act unilaterally. Cubans need the definitive end of the US Embargo and the cessation of aggressions against Cuba. 

We know about the good relationship between our countries, particularly in the areas of Education and Public Health. We witness your recognition and thanks to the Cuban government in response to the urgent situation experienced by the passengers of British cruise MS Braemar. The Cuban government allowed the docking of this vessels adopting the protocol established by the World health Organization and the Cuban Ministry of Health.

We now look forward to seeing a supportive and humane gesture towards Cuba.

Thank you in advance. Yours sincerely,

Dr Miriam Palacios and Mr Daniesky Acosta
Directors for the association Cubanos en UK
www.cubanos.org.uk

Lettre ouverte des Cubains résidents en Europe aux Présidents et Premiers ministres des pays de l'Union européenne

cubanos en europa contra el bloqueo

English | Español

Nous, Cubains résidents en Europe, demandons aux présidents et aux premiers ministres de l'Union européenne d'intervenir auprès du gouvernement des États-Unis pour qu'il lève le blocus économique, financier et commercial imposé à Cuba depuis le 2 février 1962. Depuis l'arrivée de Donald Trump à la Maison Blanche, son administration a renforcé sa politique d'hostilité envers Cuba à un niveau jamais vu auparavant : du 16 juin 2017 à ce jour, elle a appliqué 191 mesures coercitives, activant à partir du 2 mai 2019 le Titre III de la loi Helms-Burton dans le cadre des actions visant à étouffer l'économie cubaine et à obtenir un changement de "régime" à Cuba à tout prix et contre le peuple cubain.

Comme tous les pays, Cuba doit mobiliser d'immenses ressources pour faire face à la pandémie de SRAS-Covid19. Pour parvenir à vaincre cette maladie, notre pays a un besoin urgent de développer tout son potentiel économique, sans les innombrables obstacles que le gouvernement des États-Unis impose aux entreprises cubaines et étrangères qui voudraient faire des affaires avec Cuba, qui doit acheter du carburant, de la nourriture et des médicaments pour notre peuple.

Leer más...

Open letter of Cuban citizens residing in Europe to Presidents and Prime Ministers of the European Union countries

Medicos cubanos italia coronavirus

Open letter of Cuban citizens residing in Europe to Presidents and Prime Ministers of the European Union countries

We, Cuban citizens residing in Europe, request Presidents and Prime Ministers of the European Union countries to call on the US government to lift the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed on Cuba as of 2nd February 1962. Since coming to the White House, Donald Trump’s administration has tightened its hostile policy against Cuba to a level never seen before. Since 16th June  2017 until the present, 191 coercive measures have been applied and Title III of Helms Burton Act was activated from 2nd May 2019, as part of a set of actions intended to asphyxiate the Cuban economy and change the Cuban “regime” at all costs and against the Cuban people.

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I Live in Havana

I Live in Havana by Jordan Lancaster Ortega. Xlibiris Publishing. £15.99. Available to purchase here: www.bit.ly/ILiveinHavana

I live in havana

Signed copies available from the author for Cubanos en UK and friends. £10 + £2 p&p Write to: Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo.


This is the charming tale of one young girl's life in Havana, told in both English and Spanish.

It gives readers an understanding not only of what it is like to live in Cuba, but also the priority the country places on children and their development.

Simple to follow with colourful images, it's ideal for opening a window to young children on how their counterparts around the world live and how their lives compare. Many areas are covered such as families, schooling, food, national holidays and recreation with something new learnt on every page. A great start to exploring the rest of the world.

Sian Sparrow

Source: From “Educate”, the magazine of the National Education Union (NEU) p. 39.

Nación y Emigración