On February 27, FUM Global Ministries Coordinator Karla Jay, North American Ministries Coordinator Michael Sherman, and Communications Director Dan Kasztelan sent a shipment of emergency supplies to Cuba Yearly Meeting through a shipping agency in Louisville, Kentucky. Friends contributed generously to this effort by using an Amazon shopping list to purchase supplies requested by Cuba Yearly Meeting. These items were delivered to the FUM office, then packaged up and driven to the agency in Louisville, to travel on to Cuba.
The shipping agency in Kentucky—Kentucky Travel and Shipping Agency—is located in an immigrant neighborhood that includes the second-largest Cuban diaspora in the United States. From that agency we shipped 300 pounds of basic supplies, including medical items and solar-powered batteries capable of powering lights and fans for a small building. These 300 pounds had to be divided among five recipients in Cuba, due to Cuban restrictions on the number of pounds, or “points,” that any one person can receive. Power plants and batteries required more points, and those points could only be used once per month.
In conversation with the travel agency employees, Karla learned that the agency had ceased offering several of its former services, including shipping cars to the island, and providing food combos—pre-packaged food items that could be ordered online from anywhere in the world and delivered directly to Cuba.
Friends were generous beyond what we could transport in a single road trip. Karla estimated that another 300 pounds of supplies, including batteries, remained in the office because they did not fit in the car on this trip, or points were maxed out for batteries. She hopes to return with another load to ship later in March.
Recently, the United States government has placed increased sanctions and banking regulations on Cuba. These sanctions mean FUM is no longer able to receive monetary donations directly for Cuba through our online giving platforms. So we are especially thankful to be able to offer assistance to our Cuban friends through the legal shipment of material supplies.