Projects

Update: Baltimore Presbytery's Alliance with Interchurch Medical Assistance - World Health

Written by John Walter Thursday, 17 July 2008 19:29

Update:   IMA ~ World Health’s link to Baltimore Presbytery.

The last article I had added to this web site regarding my embedded experiences in the communities of El Centro Presbytery is woefully in need of an update. In the four years that have lapsed between then and now I have had the wonderful opportunity to spend long stretches of time in Cuba, and have been privileged to visit all but one of the Presbyterian Church communities there: that being Calabazar de Sagua.

In some ways, little has changed; recently they have struggled with issues in their pastorate and have found the ways and means to continue the work. Olga Perez has moved from Caibarien to lead the Placetas congregation; Dalia Rodriguez has vacated Placetas to lead both Encrucijada and Calabazar de Sagua; Edelberto Valdez has left Camajuani for a call in Caibarien, and seems to be ping-ponging between Placetas, Remedios, Camajuani, as well as Caibarien. Our prayers are with you, Edelberto, as you cover all this territory; may God give you the grace and energy you need to fulfill all these needs.

That’s what I mean though, no matter how hard pressed they may be, El Centro’s pastors are up to the challenge and will discover the Spirit within themselves, as well as the resulting means to answer them.

Regrettably, another thing that hasn’t changed is the woeful scarcity of medicines in these communities, and in fact, in all of Cuba. We see in our visits the stripped out farmacias with little available for either daily needs or long term care. When one does find the regular over the counter medicines, they are priced out of the reach of the people who need them. None of that has changed.

To begin answering those needs, Baltimore Presbytery’s partnering churches began an affiliation with Interchurch Medical Assistance, (IMA) in 2004. IMA had what they called a “Medicine Box” program; it consisted of 22 commonly needed medicines, ointments, vitamins, and bandages. Each time we visited, we took the very limit of what we could carry, usually amounting from eighty to one hundred pounds of medicines.

In 2005, I applied for and was granted ~ in Baltimore Presbytery’s name ~ a Department of Commerce Export License for Cuba. While that didn’t structurally change the amounts we were able to carry with us (due to airline ristrictions), it did allow us continued access to IMA’s prescribed and over the counter medicines at one tenth the retail price. By 2007, other sources of wholesale medicines had shut the door to faith based groups without such a license.

I should add, Interchurch Medical Assistance is now Interchurch Medical Assistance ~ World Health, (IMA-WH).

The Dream:   One of my dreams is to saturate El Centro’s church communities with medicines from IMA-WH. The fifty pound Medicine Box mentioned above is sufficient for one thousand people for a three month period. In a report I made to the Cuba Partners Network in Louisville Kentucky in 2006 I declared that it would require sixteen such boxes, (1,280 lbs.), per year to cover all 13 principal communities with a cushion, allowing the seven mission outreaches to be covered as well as non members known by those communities.

The cost: $8,600 per year.

Here’s where we are:  Ashland and Light Street Churches are our two long standing and frequent visitors to Cuba. We hope to add Dickey Memorial Presbyterian Church this year, (2008). With each church taking five people twice a year, and each delegate carrying fifteen pounds of medicines, we can carry 450 lbs. per year, or one third of our total goal.

Interestingly, a former Ashland PC member, Wendy Kunz, moved to Paulsboro, New Jersey two years ago and began speaking about her experiences in Cuba. It wasn’t long before sufficient interest had built; and in 2007, during the Centennial celebration in Cabaiguán, Woodbury Presbyterian Church, under the interim pastoral leadership of Rev. Neta Pringle, was licensed by OFAC and sent a delegation with our Baltimore group to participate in the celebrations as well as spend time in the Placetas community where Wendy had offered her services as architect to design a new sanctuary for the one which needed to be replaced                             

Since then, Wendy, leading a new Cuba Task Force at Woodbury, applied for and was granted a Department of Commerce license as well; and now their church, side by side with Baltimore Presbytery’s, are carrying an additional 300 lbs. of meds yearly to Cuba, making our current combined total 750 pounds.

Needless to say, I’m very proud of all who have given so abundantly of their resources and time; but especially proud to know and associate with those who heard and responded to the call of solidarity with the very real and human people in El Centro’s communities.

To see how these efforts might be furthered, read the article regarding the 2009 Inter-Presbytery Conference to be held in Santa Clara.