March, 2009:
Global Links Staff Embark to Cuba to Assess Medical Needs
Hurricane Relief Effort Attracting International Support (12 KB)

GLOBAL LINKS REQUESTS FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE IN RESPONDING TO CUBAN HURRICANE DEVASTATION (15 KB)

Click here for information on donating hygiene supplies for Cuban hurricane victims
(140 KB)

Cuba Medical Material Aid Program

“To cooperate with people like you and such a prestigious organization like Global Links is, for me, one of the most important tasks I have had in my professional life, and I will continue doing this with efficiency and humility so that your inestimable help will continue arriving, as it has up to today, to children who really need it.”
-Dr. Julio Brossard, Neurosurgeon at Santiago Pediatrico Sur Hospital in Santiago, Cuba

“The impact of the donations that you have made has been fundamental to the solution of some prioritized problems in the Health System of Cuba. For example, your collaboration with the Institute of Nephrology and the country’s clinical surgical hospitals, to name a few examples of cooperation.”
-Dr. Patricio Yepez Mino, PAHO/WHO Representative

Global Links’ program of medical aid to Cuba began in 1994 at the request of The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). This program is a federally licensed humanitarian aid program. Aid sent is received and distributed to health institutions by the PAHO/WHO office in Havana and the Cuban Ministry of Health.

The focus of this program is two-fold:
1). to support the national referral hospitals such as Calixto Garcia Hospital ; and the National Institutes of Neurology, Oncology, Cardiology and Nephrology.
2). to provide aid to targeted regional and community hospitals throughout the island.

Since the program’s inception, Global Links has delivered 81 40-foot containers of medicines, furnishings, supplies, and equipment.

Click here to read about recent shipments.

Expectant mothers wait their turn in a maternal home in Matanzas, Cuba (Pittsburgh's City Sister).

All photos by Lynn Johnson

Expectant mothers wait their turn in a maternal home in Matanzas, Cuba (Pittsburgh's City Sister).

One of the head doctors at the Mammography Screening Clinic in Havana explains to Global Links staff and consultants how they read the mammography x-ray to determine if tumors are benign or malignant.

Elderly residents at the Caibarien senior care facility watch TV, the only means of entertainment in this home to 50 elderly residents. The quote above the TV reads "The most important person in this place is the elderly person."

An elderly patient in critical care.

Thanks to a special funding grant, Global Links was able to provide state-of-the-art mammography and ultrasound equipment to the Breast Cancer Screening Program in Havana, Cuba.

A dialysis patient at the Institute of Nephrology in Cuba. Dialysis patients must receive 2-3 three hour sessions of dialysis a week.

Quote reads: "The life of a single human being is worth more than all of the riches of the wealthiest man on earth." - Che Guevara.

A young patient receives a diagnostic ultrasound at a pediatric hospital in Pittsburgh's sister-city, Matanzas.

Patient living quarters at the Caibarien senior care facility. Patient room furniture is in very poor condition and residents have very few possessions.