Canadian Doctor Sends
medical Equipment to Cuba
Dr. Jerome Harvey (right) demonstrates asthma inhalers donated by Canadian doctors to Cuban doctors.
ACanadian doctor is upplying Cubanhos- pitals with recycled
medical equipment from
Canadian hospitals. Dr. Jerome Harvey served 43 years
in medical practice, four in
Africa developing a village
health program. Retired in
Thunder Bay, Ont., Dr. Harvey found himself on a short-term mission team in 2003
with his church, digging
ditches for a water system at
a children’s camp in Cuba.
He met Dr. Aurora, a Cuban
physician who introduced
him to Cuban hospitals in
critical need of modernization, and arranged for him
to meet officials from the
Cuban Ministry of Health.
Dr. Harvey returned to
Canada and formed the
volunteer-run MEMO Cuba
(Medical Equipment. Mod-
ernization. Opportunity.). Their mission,
according to their website, is “to show the
love of God to the Cuban people by provid-
ing redundant Canadian hospital equip-
ment and supplies to needy health care
facilities in the province of Villa Clara.”
SuPPLIED PHOTO
Dr. Harvey says since 2004 MEMO
Cuba has shipped 44 containers of medical
equipment to update seven hospitals in Cen-
How 59 Cents Can Change Canada
A whirlwind experience” is how Can- adian Mennonite university (CMu) student Matthew Dueck describes his involvement in the 59 Cents
Campaign for Refugee Healthcare. This
student-led movement challenged the
Federal Government’s decision to begin
denying supplemental health care coverage to refugees as of June 30, 2012. It
invited Canadians to mail 59 cents to the
prime minister as an indication of their
support for refugee health care. That
amount represents the estimated cost,
per Canadian, of the $20 million Interim
Federal Health Program (IFHP).
The campaign grew out of a small
“
group student assignment in a one-
week course at CMu’s Canadian School
of Peacebuilding (CSOP) called “Speak-
ing Out...and Being Heard – Citizen
Advocacy.”
“Our assignment,” says Dueck, “was
to create an advocacy campaign that
could, in theory, be implemented in real
life. But by the time we were making
our class presentation, we realized that
there was nothing stopping this from
moving beyond the theoretical. And after
everything we’d learned about the situa-
tion, we were passionate about helping to
create change.”
The move from theory to reality hap-
pened quickly. Dueck and his classmates
Maureen Gathogo and Deanna Zantingh
made their presentation on June 22
(just eight days ahead of the proposed
changes in refugee health care funding).
“The window of opportunity was that
weekend,” says Dueck.
