Shunpiking Online Vo.4 No.4 Cuba's international contribution and founding of Hamilton Friendship Association with Cuba<br><br>

Ad-Hoc Committee to Found the Hamilton Friendship Association with Cuba

Contact: Jamila Ghaddar or Email: hamiltoncubafriendship@gmail.com

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Juan Pacheco Gonzalez, Henry Reeve Brigade, Pakistan Mission

Please note that to make way for many other activities on the original date for our conference and due to delays in confirming our speaker from Cuba, the Conference, Cuba's Work Worldwide: Friendship & Learning People to People, will now take place on Saturday, May 26, starting at 10:00 am (See program below).

We are pleased to inform you that Dr. Juan Pacheco Gonzalez, from the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Services, Celia Sanchez Mandauley Hospital in Havana, Cuba, will be our keynote speaker during the afternoon session. We invite you to come to our conference on May 26 to hear Dr. Pacheco address the important topic of Cuba's international contribution on the medical front. His session will focus on Cuba's extensive concrete medical assistance to other countries. Besides sending thousands of health workers into the most remote areas in the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuba provides thousands of full scholarships for students from poor backgrounds from all these countries to study in the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba. It is also spearheading eye surgery programs abroad which have restored eyesight to tens of thousands of people.

Dr. Pacheco has collaborated abroad in Guyana and South Africa and, most recently, in Pakistan. From October 2005 to May 2006, he was a member of the Henry Reeve International Contingent which provided disaster relief following the earthquake in which 75,000 people, died, more than 120,000 were wounded and 3.3 million were left homeless. Cuba sent 2,465 health workers to help out in Pakistan, including 1,430 experienced physicians like Dr. Pacheco.

Conference Program

The program will start with registration at 10:00 am.

The morning session will feature Professor Isaac Saney, author of Cuba: A Revolution in Motion (2004) and co-producer with Mark Rushton of the highly successful documentary Sisters' & Brothers' Keeper: Cuba and Southern African Liberation. The main presentation will include the screening of this internationally-renowned film.

We have also confirmed the details of the noon-hour session on Cuba's work on environmental sustainability.

Ian Graham will lead this session. Mr. Graham has a Master's degree in Religious Education and has worked as a pastoral counsellor with prison survivors. He was recorded in the ministry of chaplaincy by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 2004. Currently, he is active in community chaplaincy focused on local sustainability in urban Burlington.

In this session, Mr. Graham will report on his March 2006 visit to Cuba in, where he saw first-hand the effects of the 'Special Period' and organic agricultural experiments. He will show slides and present information on the impact in Cuba of "Peak Oil." He will also show portions of the film, The Power of Community, which portrays Cuba's response to its sudden and drastic reduction in oil supply: relocalization, growth of low energy transport and land preparation, and the development of widespread urban organic gardening. Since the "Peak Oil" phenomenon will soon force all high-energy countries, including Canada, to face similar challenges, we have much to learn from the Cuban experience. Both the general issue of Peak Oil and the Cuban adaptation will be discussed in this session.

This exciting program is an opportunity for all those interested to learn more about Cuba and strengthen the traditional friendship between our two peoples.

Founding of Hamilton Friendship Association with Cuba

The day-long conference will be followed by the founding of the Hamilton Friendship Association with Cuba in the evening. We are excited to confirm the attendance of His Excellency the Cuban Ambassador to Canada Ernesto Senti Darias at this founding, along with other guests including the Mayor of Hamilton Fred Eisenberger, Margarita Valle, political Counsellor at the Embassy of Cuba in Ottawa and Laureano Cardoso, Consul General of Cuba in Toronto. We will keep you informed about others as they confirm their participation.

We are founding the Hamilton Friendship Association with Cuba to further strengthen the ties of friendship between the peoples of Canada and Cuba. Towards this end we intend to organize conferences such as the one we are holding on May 26 and activities of all kinds so that our two peoples can exchange experiences, learn and benefit from one another. At all times we will uphold and respect Cuba's right to national sovereignty and to determine her own way of life. We will oppose any outside interference in Cuba's internal affairs.

Join In!

We hope you are able to join us at the Conference, at the founding and in making all our activities a success. Let us know if you can lend a hand! All contributions are welcome!

Ad Hoc Committee to Found the Hamilton Friendship Association with Cuba

Committee Members
Jamila Ghaddar

Secretary
Dr. Charlotte Yates

Chair, Labour Studies Department, McMaster University
Dr. Graeme MacQueen

Founder, Peace Studies Department, McMaster University
Rolf Gerstenberger

President, United Steelworkers of America, Local 1005
Steve Kucha

Executive member and Chair of the St. Catharines & District Labour Council Human Rights Committee
Sam Hammond

Solidarity House
Leigh Hayden

Executive Member, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 (McMaster University)
Dave Rennie

Member, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Executive Member, Hamilton District Labour Council
Sidarth Murgani

Student, McMaster University

Website: http://www.cubacanada.org/