CARAVAN TO CUBA IN CARBONDALE FRIDAY, JULY 8

Date/Time
Date(s) - 07/08/2022
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Location
Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship

Categories No Categories

CARAVAN TO CUBA IN CARBONDALE FRIDAY, JULY 8
The 30th IFCO*/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba arrives in Carbondale on Friday, July 8, 2022. For the 21st time, the Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois is helping organize a welcome as the Caravan passes through Southern Illinois. The evening will offer a special music event and update on Cuba at the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship, 105 N. Parrish Lane. The event is free and open to the public; donations will be collected for the work of IFCO/Pastors for Peace.
Doors will open at 6:30 PM with the return of SIWADE (Southern Illinois West African Drumming Ensemble), a long-time favorite of Southern Illinoisans and a performance of Latin Folkloric Music with Colleen Springer-Lopez and Regina Zavala. Refreshments will be served… on the patio if COVID transmission is high in Jackson County and a mask is required inside the Unitarian Fellowship.
Two Caravanistas will provide an update on Cuba led by Dr. Samira Addrey, a 2020 graduate of the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba (ELAM). She is currently working at IFCO/Pastors for Peace as the ELAM Scholarship Program Coordinator while completing the necessary requirements to apply for medical residency in the United States.
Cheryl LaBash will share her extensive knowledge of Cuba. She made her first trip to Cuba in 1985 as a member of the executive board of her AFSCME local in the city of Detroit. She contributes to national mobilization and legislative advocacy to end the U.S. economic, financial and commercial blockade of Cuba and writes on current Cuba related developments
The event will collect funds to help the Caravan take medicine and supplies to Cuba. While Cuba developed its’ own vaccines, simple medicines and medical supplies are in short supply due to the 60 years plus embargo and the impacts of COVID, so the focus is on raising funds to purchase in bulk.
A ZOOM participation option will be provided by the Unitarian Fellowship. For a sign-on or more information contact Georgeann Hartzog, 618.521.4239, or georgeannhartzog@gmail.com . The Social Action Committee of the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship and the Church of the Good Shepherd UCC are cosponsors. More information on this effort to break down the barriers with Cuba can be found at the IFCO website: www.ifconews.org.
*Pastors for Peace is a special ministry of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), and was created in 1988 to pioneer the delivery of humanitarian aid to Latin America and the Caribbean. Pastors for Peace offers concerned US citizens an opportunity to demonstrate and enact an alternative people-to-people foreign policy based in justice and mutual respect.