US solidarity donation of powdered milk goes to Cuban hospitals

Three thousand pounds of powdered milk donated by emigrants and friends in the United States who oppose the blockade against Cuba arrived in central Camagüey and Ciego de Avila provinces on Friday.

At Miami International Airport, activist Carlos Lazo, coordinator of the Bridges of Love movement, told Prensa Latina that the shipment of vital food “will account for 50,000 glasses of milk for children in pediatric hospitals in both provinces.”

The group is made up, among others, of Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the pacifist organization CodePink, and Mayte Sosa, a member of Acere, a group that promotes a change in Washington’s policy on Cuba, the Cuban-American professor, who resides in Seattle, noted.

“We will visit medical centers, orphan children’s homes, and nursing homes. It is a modest contribution,” he noted.

On January 27, Bridges of Love, CodePink and Acere were in Havana, where they took 1,000 pounds of powdered milk for the William Soler pediatric hospital and delivered some 71,000 pancreatin tablets for patients suffering from cystic fibrosis.

“We will continue to support the family and the Cuban people. We will continue to open holes in the blockade,” Lazo said from the plane that took them to the Caribbean island at the time.

Bridges of Love, along with CodePink and other organizations, is one of the most active groups within the United States in the fight against the economic, commercial and financial blockade, which has survived 11 administrations, both Democratic and Republican.

Until the blockade falls, “let’s make a lot of holes in that wall,” Lazo stressed in another brief message to Prensa Latina when he arrived in Cuba in the morning of February 23.

“Authorities of the Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) in Camagüey have given us a nice welcome,” he said.