The people of Cuba are getting a helping hand thanks to the Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba and a 22-year-old graduate of Dr. Charles Best secondary school.
Sarah Alwell, 22, is the Vancouver Island co-ordinator for the BC Aid Network for Cuba (BCANC), a group of people who are collecting aid to send to Cuba on this year's Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba.
The group will be leaving July 3 on a brightly-painted school bus for a two-week journey to Cuba. Alwell, who is also training to be a carpenter, will be among the Canadian peace advocates who will meet Americans and educate them about the effects of the 50-year-old U.S. blockade and collecting construction supplies and tools, medical supplies and equipment, educational and cultural supplies, computers and bicycles for donation to Cuba.
Such efforts effectively break the blockade but Alwell and her group are undaunted.
"The Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba is a project that works on the principle that 'if there is a law against loving my neighbour, I want to break it,'" Alwell said in a press release. "As a people-to-people project, we need the help and support of everyone."
To learn more or to donate, visit www.bcanc.net, email bcanc.cubaid@gmail.com or call 778-889-7664.
