• Submitted by: lena campos
• Society
• 09 / 01 / 2012

---

The IFCO/Pastors for Peace 20th anniversary caravan cargo of nearly 100 tons of humanitarian aid has arrived in Cuba, reported Prensa Latina this weekend. 

This 23rd Friendshipment included five vehicles and four containers of medical, educational and construction aid, collected by groups from across the US, Canada and Mexico.

 Pastor Estela Hernández of the William Carey Baptist Church in Cuba said that the Cuban Ecumenical Distribution Committee will now begin the month-long process of distributing the aid, prioritizing those institutions and individuals demonstrating the most need.  According to Hernández, one bus will be delivered to a school for disabled children in Pinar del Rio, while others will be distributed throughout the island.

The IFCO/Pastors for Peace US-Cuba Friendshipment is a bold challenge to the decades old US blockade of Cuba.  “By not seeking or accepting a license from the US government to collect and deliver aid to our brothers and sisters in Cuba, we prove that the US blockade is not merely unjust and immoral as the United Nations has affirmed overwhelmingly year after year but rather an economic, cultural and social war against the people of Cuba,” said IFCO Co-Director Rev. Luis Barrios.

 Pastors for Peace is a special ministry of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), and was created in 1988 to pioneer the delivery of humanitarian aid to Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a global effort to create an alternative people-to-people foreign policy.  Since 1992, IFCO has worked to bring an end to the US blockade of Cuba hrough its Friendshipment Caravans, construction brigades and educational delegations. 

Source: Amsterdamnews.com