Combat the Rise in Infant Mortality in Cuba!
Contribute to the international campaign by Global Health Partners, working with Cuba’s Ministry of Health.
The Auckland Cuba Friendship Society is collecting funds until November 15 to contribute to this campaign. Bob Schwarz, director of Global Health Partners, will speak at a public meeting in Auckland on October 31. See details below.
How to donate
Account name: New Zealand Cuba Society
Account number: 02-0159-0200303-00
Under its Neonatal and Maternal Healthcare Initiative, US-based Global Health Partners is working with Cuba’s Ministry of Health to combat the infant mortality rate, which doubled between 2018 and 2025.
As Global Health Partners explains in its educational material about the initiative, this rise is one of the cruelest impacts of Washington’s economic war against Cuba.
A proud achievement of the Revolution
The reduction in Cuba’s infant mortality rate was “one of the proudest achievements” of the “universal primary care” established after the 1959 Revolution, says Global Health Partners.
Before the 1959 overthrow of the US-backed dictatorship, more than 70 infants died during their first year of life for every 1,000 live births. Within a year of the Revolution, the rate had nearly halved, despite the departure of the majority of Cuba’s doctors. By 2018, it had fallen to just 4 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Today, this key indicator of public health has risen to more than 10 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Global Health Partners identifies several contributing factors, including “the lack of medical equipment, compounded by food shortages; gaps in prenatal care, and the emigration of doctors and nurses spurred by the economic crisis.” It also points to “malnutrition among pregnant women” and other factors that have contributed to increased health problems among newborns.
Help provide lifesaving healthcare
Global Health Partners is calling for generous donations to help alleviate this healthcare crisis. Organised in partnership with Cuba’s health system, the initiative “aims to supply Cuban hospitals with lifesaving equipment and preventive interventions to ensure healthy mothers and babies.”
Global Health Partners urges us to “show the Cuban people our friendship and support in the face of an unjust blockade that is strangling the country’s healthcare system”.
Please contribute to this international campaign and help protect the health of Cuban mothers and babies.
Public meeting: Voices from Cuba
Saturday, October 31, at 4pm
Robert Gallagher Room, Auckland Trades Hall
147 Great North Road, Grey Lynn, Auckland
Hear Bob Schwarz, director of Global Health Partners, speak about the campaign to support Cuba’s maternal and neonatal healthcare. The meeting will also include a farewell for Cuban Ambassador Luis Ernesto Morejón Rodríguez and discussion of Cuba’s struggle against Washington’s oil blockade and economic sanctions.
This year’s US blockade on oil supplies to Cuba is having a devastating impact on working people there.
With electricity plants starved of fuel, extensive power cuts are now a regular fact of life, with all that means for daily life and the island’s infrastructure – from health services to agriculture.
The blockade does not depart from the policy of Washington and its allies towards Cuba, rather it reinforces the shutdown on trade and investment enforced in the early 1960s as punishment of the Cuban people for carrying out a revolution for independence from US domination and for socialism. Successive US presidents have tightened and expanded this embargo.
Added to this economic war are Washington’s brazen threats of military action against Cuba.
Everyone is welcome. Please come along and show your solidarity with Cuba.
Social media please share: Eventfinder, Facebook, Aotearoa Cuba Friendship Society, Instagram
Contact
To find out more or discuss making a donation, contact:
Annalucia Phone: 021 201 7399
Email: cubafriends.ak
Thank you for your solidarity and support.
Auckland Cuba Friendship Society
