The “Sutures Saves Lives” campaign has a goal of raising $75,000 to send 60,000 medical sutures to Cuba by mid-February. The effort is jointly organized by Global Health Partners and the Saving Lives Campaign. Over 31 years, GHP has sent $275 million worth of medical supplies to the Cuban people.
“Sutures are the single most requested item by Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health,” Global Health Partners Executive Director Bob Schwartz told the Militant Jan. 3. “It’s a difficult situation for doctors when they have to decide whose surgery must be postponed based on the amount of medical supplies they have to work with.”
Washington has inflicted a brutal economic war on Cuba for more than six decades, in response to the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
In 2021 the U.S. government put Cuba on its “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list, a move that flies in the face of Cuba’s provision of medical volunteers and other aid to people in need around the world. This creates a barricade of impossible requirements by the Department of Commerce and the Treasury Department that block shipping supplies to the island and penalize businesses and banks from abroad that engage in trade or financial transactions with Cuba.
“It would be great for Cuba if they could buy supplies just a few miles away in the U.S., like, for example, medicine for insulin-dependent diabetics,” Schwartz said. “But instead it has to cobble together a dozen countries to get the insulin.”
One of the main trauma centers in Havana is at the General Calixto García University Hospital. Schwartz said that during the COVID-19 pandemic the hospital was down to two anesthesia machines, so “we sent 24 more.” Cuba needed 27 million syringes and was using its own COVID vaccine. “We supplied 6 million syringes to help ensure the entire population could be vaccinated.”
From 2024-25 the Saving Lives Campaign and Global Health Partners “sent 745 pacemakers to Cuba, saving 745 lives,” Schwartz added.
He said they work directly with Cuba’s Ministry of Health, rather than individual doctors, which ensures that the supplies are distributed equally throughout the country’s cities and rural areas based on need.
“We ship 40-foot containers on a regular basis throughout the year, so doctors and hospitals aren’t scrambling. One million dollars of supplies arrived in the Port of Mariel on New Year’s Day.” Many of these are packed by hand by volunteers with LA Hands Off Cuba Committee, Not Just Tourists, and the Pan-American Medical Association, he said.
“After last year’s Hurricane Melissa we sent medical supplies that were distributed throughout the four hardest-hit eastern provinces. Now with the chikungunya virus, we are providing analgesics, rehydration packets, salts and other medications.”
Schwartz told the Militant that Global Health Partners is not just a social service organization, “We are very much a solidarity effort. We’re using this work to help build the anti-embargo movement and to get Cuba off the ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’ list.”
So far “Sutures Saves Lives” has raised $50,000 toward its goal. To contribute, send a check payable to Global Health Partners with “Sutures” on the memo line. Mail to Global Health Partners, 39 Broadway, Suite 1540, New York, NY 10006. To pay by debit or credit card, go to https://ghpartners.org/sutures.