Jean-Marc Ram­per­sad

Cli­mate Change Ed­i­tor

jean-marc.ram­per­sad

@guardian.co.tt

While Ja­maica un­doubt­ed­ly bore the full brunt of Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa’s fury, oth­er coun­tries, such as Cu­ba, were al­so sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­pact­ed.

The Unit­ed Na­tions (UN) re­cent­ly launched a US$74 mil­lion fund to aid those af­fect­ed in Cu­ba fol­low­ing the pas­sage of Melis­sa over their east­ern provinces as a Cat­e­go­ry three hur­ri­cane.

The plan aims to fo­cus on health, wa­ter, san­i­ta­tion, shel­ter, ed­u­ca­tion, and ear­ly re­cov­ery. The UN es­ti­mat­ed that 2.2 mil­lion Cubans are in dire need of as­sis­tance in the af­ter­math of this dis­as­ter.

Lo­cal­ly, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Friends of Cu­ba has launched a cam­paign for fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance for East­ern Cu­ba. Mem­ber of the or­gan­i­sa­tion, John Julien, said, “The (T&T) Friends of Cu­ba have de­cid­ed that we are go­ing to re­quest fi­nan­cial aid, so that peo­ple can do­nate on­line, and we have post­ed the bank ac­count de­tails where peo­ple can do­nate in Trinidad and To­ba­go dol­lars. We will then pass that on to the Cuban Em­bassy for the east­ern ar­eas (of Cu­ba).”

Peo­ple will­ing to ren­der aid can make trans­fers or de­posits to First Cit­i­zens Bank Chequing ac­count num­ber 1837658. The ac­count hold­er’s name is the Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice (MSJ).

When con­tact­ed, MSJ Po­lit­i­cal Leader, David Ab­du­lah, con­firmed that they are fa­cil­i­tat­ing the do­na­tions and kind­ly asked that donors state that it is for “Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa Re­lief”.

Julien added, “As it stands now, we are still wait­ing to hear from the Gov­ern­ment, be­cause the Prime Min­is­ter in­di­cat­ed that there was to be some type of re­lief. So, we are wait­ing for some more in­for­ma­tion, and we will be will­ing to as­sist in that al­so.”

Julien in­di­cat­ed that fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance is the on­ly op­tion at the mo­ment. He ex­plained, “The em­bar­go is still in­tact. As a re­sult of that, get­ting sup­plies to Cu­ba is go­ing to be dif­fi­cult un­less it’s a gov­ern­ment-to-gov­ern­ment re­la­tion­ship.”

This em­bar­go im­posed by the Unit­ed States is a com­pre­hen­sive eco­nom­ic, com­mer­cial, and fi­nan­cial re­stric­tion that pro­hibits trade and com­merce with Cu­ba.

Co­in­ci­den­tal­ly, last week, the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly vot­ed on draft leg­is­la­tion, with 165 of the 193 mem­bers vot­ing in favour of end­ing the em­bar­go. Trinidad and To­ba­go vot­ed in favour of this leg­is­la­tion.

De­spite this, the US has au­tho­rised US$24 mil­lion in aid for the re­gion, with US$3 mil­lion al­lo­cat­ed for the peo­ple of Cu­ba.

Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa made land­fall in Cu­ba on Oc­to­ber 29.