IFCO/Pastors for Peace 2006 Caravan to Cuba

Wonder why George W. doesn't want you to know the truth about Cuba?

Find out this summer!

• While the US government sends it soldiers round the world, Cuba sends its doctors, with for instance 15,000 of them currently providing free health care to the Venezuelan people, just as their compatriots provide free health care to the Cuban people.
• While the US government trains Latin American military personnel at its School of the Americas in Georgia, Cuba is providing free medical training for thousands of economically poor young people from across the Americas (including the US) at its Latin American Medical School.
• While the US government did nothing as Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, the Cuban government evacuates its people out of the path of hurricanes.

The US government says you can't go to Cuba and see things for yourself. We say you should. For fourteen years, IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravans to Cuba have called international attention to the cruel and immoral US Blockade of Cuba by delivering humanitarian aid to the Cuban people without a Treasury Department license. The blockade causes shortages of food, medicine and other important supplies for eleven million people. The blockade is an immoral policy that uses hunger and disease as political weapons.

In November 2005 the countries in the United Nations General Assembly once again voted overwhelmingly (182-4) to call for the end of the blockade. A month later Condoleza Rice stated that the US government's "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba" is considering more blockade-tightening measures to be announced in May 2006. US policy towards Cuba is totally isolated internationally, increasingly discredited domestically and subject to many challenges from within Congress. We intend to respond to whatever new measures Bush devises with a Friendshipment Caravan that gathers the maximum possible support and publicity, and for that we need your help.

In June/July 2006 the 17th Friendshipment will travel on 13 different routes to visit more than 120 US and Canadian cities. We will travel in school buses, trucks, and cars to Cuba via Mexico with medical and educational supplies collected from groups across the US and Canada, refusing US Treasury Department licenses, as a collective challenge to the blockade and travel ban. You can join the caravan as a caravan vehicle passes through your community from June 17th onwards. Many past caravanistas say that the time traveling through the US, meeting and staying with local community activists across the country, was as important a part of the experience as the time in Cuba. But if your time is limited you also have the option of making your own way down to join us in McAllen, Texas on July 2nd.

We will spend 8 days in Cuba visiting hospitals, schools and a range of social projects in Havana, hearing from important Cuban speakers, and meeting people via cultural activities. We will then fly back to Mexico and cross the Texas border on July 17th, bringing back with us a symbolic donation of goods that Cuba would like to trade with the US people. Once again we are mounting a joint travel challenge with the Venceremos Brigade and the US-Cuba Labor Exchange. We will be in Cuba at the same time as them and return on the same day.

What you can do

• Come as a caravanista - get in touch with IFCO to get an application form
• Recruit other caravanistas - get them to request an application form
• Get involved with your local host committee - or if there wasn't one last year then how about you taking the initiative. Let IFCO know if you want to take on or help with being the host for a caravan event in your community.
• Collect material aid - let IFCO know so we send you the material aid pack.
• Help out as a volunteer in the IFCO New York office.
• Make a financial donation. Checks or money orders should be made out to IFCO and mailed to our New York office, or you can phone the office (212-926-5757) to make a credit card donation.
  Donations are tax-deductible and a receipt can be mailed to you for use in preparing your income tax.

Caravan Schedule

June 17-July 1: Caravan routes with educational presentations and aid collections throughout the US and Canada
July 2-7: Participant orientation in Texas. Border crossing into Mexico Travel to Tampico and load material aid onto cargo ship
July 8-15: Fly to Havana for Caravan educational program in Cuba.
July 16: Return to Tampico, Mexico and travel to Mexico/US border
July 17: Reverse challenge; cross the Mexican border into the US, delivering aid from the Cuban people to the people of the US

Is the caravan coming to your city?

Pick your state from the list below to see when the caravan is coming near you:

-- choose your state -- ---------- Alberta British Columbia Manitoba Nova Scotia Ontario Quebec ---------- Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

 

How you can be a part of the 17th Friendshipment

JOIN US!! If you would like to travel with us or are interested in hosting the caravan please contact the IFCO/Pastors for Peace office at p4p@igc.org

IFCO/Pastors for Peace
418 W. 145th St., New York, NY 10031
Ph: 212-926-5757 Fax: 212-926-5842
Email: p4p@igc.org
www.pastorsforpeace.org