One cause that unites Christians throughout the world is caring for the sick. It's a part of the Christian identity that goes back to Jesus, a miraculous healer who called on his followers to care for people in need as if they were Christ himself.
Christians in Cuba and the United States have long responded to this call together, despite a Cold War legacy that continues to poison relations between our countries.
When the Cuban economy went into a depression in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuban churches called for international help to meet the health needs of people affected by the crisis. Christians in many countries gave funds, but U.S. Christians could only provide certain items, such as blankets and medicine, due to our country's trade embargo against Cuba.
Despite all the restrictions, this help continues. This year, U.S. Christians are donating more than a dozen tons of blankets and basic hygiene supplies to Cuban churches through a program of Church World Service, an ecumenical organization made up of 37 U.S. denominations and churches.
Cuban churches use these supplies to care for older adults, families affected by alcoholism and people with serious health conditions such as AIDS. This work is coordinated by the Cuban Council of Churches, which brings together most of the country's Protestant denominations.
Cuba's Protestant minority numbers about 550,000 and includes many health professionals, thanks to a socialist system that provides medical training for free. Yet the churches lack the kinds of financial and material resources that their fellow Christians in the U.S. would take for granted. Basic items from the U.S., such as towels and washcloths, help ensure that older adults have the supplies they need when they go to the hospital, according to Dr. Ana Margarita Mayor, who coordinates the council's health program.
Without funds to pay salaries, Cuban churches have nevertheless reached thousands of people in need throughout the country through programs run by trained volunteers. These include support groups for alcoholics, HIV prevention workshops for adolescents and feeding and laundry services for older adults.
"Our focus is mainly on making sure that individuals and families and churches can work together to have solutions to health needs," Dr. Mayor says.
Dr. Mayor adds that the Cuban Council of Churches has a productive relationship with Cuba's Ministry of Health. The council has initiated public health programs, such as a pilot project for the early detection of deafness, that the ministry has used as a model.
Cuban churches have also reached people in need beyond their shores. For example, after the 2010 earthquake in neighboring Haiti, Cuban mission workers provided care for earthquake survivors with disabilities.
One might think that the Cuban churches' medical work should transcend politics. After all, Jesus flouted the rules of his society to heal the sick, whoever and wherever they were.
Yet the U.S. embargo against Cuba makes it much more difficult to support the Cuban churches' medical work. The State Department's official line is that the "U.S. government encourages the development of civil society [in Cuba], which includes strengthening religious institutions." However, Americans who provide financial support to the churches for activities that are considered "non-religious" -- such as caring for the sick -- risk running afoul of the embargo. This keeps Dr. Mayor and her colleagues from being able to hire a full-time staff or purchase computers, among other things.
U.S. religious leaders have urged the Obama administration to end the embargo and restore diplomatic relations with Cuba, and most Americans appear to agree with them. The administration has taken significant steps in this direction, such as loosening travel restrictions and allowing Cuban-Americans to send money to their relatives. Another welcome change is that U.S. churches can now send money to Cuban churches for religious activities, such as paying pastors' pensions.
Christians on both sides of the Straits of Florida should keep up the pressure on our governments to make amends. After half a century of enmity, that might seem unlikely. But we all follow someone who works miracles.
Timothy Kennel Shenk writes about religious and humanitarian issues for Church World Service, a global humanitarian agency.
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YOUTUBE: CUBA: Caridad Diego on Government Persecution of Apostolic Movement - For years, churches affiliated with the Apostlic Movement, a charismatic, evangelical network of churches in Cuba have complained of persecution and have given evidence of repeated violations of their religious liberty. The churches and the network have been denied the right to register and receive official recognition. One of the main leaders, Pastor Omar Gude Perez is serving a 6 1/2 year prison sentence on trumped up charges. Authorities have repeatedly threatened to confiscate the family's home and goods. Other leaders have reported cases of harassment, arbitrary detention, confiscation of their homes and personal or church property. Churches have been completely demolished without warning while others have been forcibly shut down. The Cuban government has not responded to requests for an explanation and continues to maintain that there is religious freedom in Cuba. However, in early 2010, Caridad Diego, the long time head of the Office of Religous Affairs for the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party addressed a group of leaders from the Cuban Council of Churches and openly admitted to the government's targeted persecution of churches affiliated with the Apostolic Movement. Some of those in attendance were so shocked by her admission that they clandestinely filmed her speech. The video was smuggled out of the country and leaders of the Apostolic Movement asked Christian Solidarity Worldwide to make it public
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8QmvquACBM&feature=related
USCIRF Annual Report 2011 - The Commission's Watch List: Cuba- Covers April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011- Refworld is produced by the Protection Information Unit (Department of International Protection) and the Electronic Publishing Unit (Division of External Relations).
FINDINGS: Serious religious freedom violations continue in Cuba despite some improvements. Violations by the Cuban government include: detention, sporadic arrests, and harassment of clergy and religious leaders affiliated with unregistered religious groups, as well as the control and monitoring of religious belief and practices including through surveillance, infiltration, and legal restrictions prohibiting religious communities from operating without government permission. These conditions exist under the one-party rule of a Communist government that continues to have an overall poor record on human rights.
Based on these concerns, USCIRF again places Cuba on its Watch List in 2011. Cuba has been on the Commission's Watch List since 2004.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4dbe90bbc.html
The Wall Street Journal's Joel Millman reports on Cuba's program of sending doctors abroad as missionaries—and the doctors' attempts to stay abroad for good: The video tells the story of one Cuban doctor working in Gambia who took nine months to escape and now lives in Florida. His wife and child are still in Cuba and she lost her job at a hospital as a result of being blacklisted for five years because of his defection. Another downside is that, without their medical records and certifications (held by the Cuban government), Cuban doctors in the United States can only work as nurses or surgical assistants.
Cuba has been sending medical "brigades" to foreign countries since 1973, helping it to win friends abroad, to back "revolutionary" regimes in places like Ethiopia, Angola, and Nicaragua, and perhaps most importantly, to earn hard currency. Communist Party newspaper Granma reported in June that Cuba had 37,041 doctors and other health workers in 77 countries. Estimates of what Cuba earns from its medical teams—revenue that Cuba's central bank counts as "exports of services"—vary widely, running to as much as $8 billion a year. Many Cubans complain that the brigades have undermined Cuba's ability to maintain a high standard of health care at home.
http://www.good.is/post/video-cuban-doctors-defection-comes-at-a-price/
WIKILEAK DOCUMENT : Viewing cable 08HAVANA103, CUBAN HEALTHCARE: “AQUI NADA ES FACIL”-
In one Cuban hospital, patients had to bring their own light bulbs. In another, the staff used ``a primitive manual vacuum'' on a woman who had miscarried. In others, Cuban patients pay bribes to obtain better treatment.
Those and other observations by an unidentified nurse assigned to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana were included in a dispatch sent by the mission in January 2008 and made public this month by WikiLeaks.
Titled ``Cuban healthcare: Aquí Nada es Facil'' -- Nothing here is easy -- the cable offers a withering assessment by the nurse, officially a Foreign Service Health Practitioner, or FSHP, who already had lived in Cuba for 2 ½ years.
CLICK LINK BELOW FOR ORGINAL WIKILEAK DOCUMENT
http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/01/08HAVANA103.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK3AnxSgdxA&feature=share
YOUTUBE : Patients in Hospital for Cubans part 2 - More videos showing patient's rooms at the 10 de Octubre and Miguel enriquez hospitals in Havana. Notice how some of the beds have bed sheets that are not the typical white sheets used in most hospitals. This is because many patients have to bring their own bed sheets, pillows and towels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8T4SinsfWQ&feature=related