Re-growing after the hurricanes on Youth Island, Cuba

In August of 2008 hurricane Gustav passed through Cuba with winds of up to 300 km/h. The hurricane left the 87,000 inhabitants of Youth Island without electricity, phone connection, and with 80% of the roofs and houses were either damaged or destroyed. Two weeks later hurricane Ike passed, exacerbating the situation.

Oxfam Canada launched an appeal to support the reactivation of urban agriculture on the island; and in only a few short weeks, we had the capacity to start producing vegetables. The $100,000 contribution from the Canadian public, trade unions and the Canadian embassy had a huge impact. Oxfam Canada representative, Beat Schmid, recently visited the island for a few days to talk with farmers and local authorities and to see the impact of the project.

The local coordinator of our Cuban partner the Cuban Association of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians (ACTAF), Marianita said, "It was part of the first support that arrived on the island and the machetes, shovels, wheel barrows and other things were distributed immediately to the people."

Yunisleidis Rodriguez of the Popular Council `Abel Santa Maria` reported, `It is amazing: all the Popular Councils produced more fruits and vegetables during the first six months of 2009 then during the same period of 2008 - translating into 400g of vegetables and fruits for every inhabitant of the island. The project gave the people what they needed - tools to work their land. Not even 50% of the houses are rebuilt, but everywhere people are growing vegetables and fruits and they feel motivated to move forward.`

Felicito, from the community Chacones, stated that he received 13 additional hectares of land to work on. `I will plant fruit trees there. I already have 4,000 plants ready to be transplanted, and the plastic bags I used to start them are recycled milk bags that I collected from the local landfill.`

Beat, `This project was successful, in part, because it was closely coordinated with our local partners and because it responded quickly to the immediate needs of affected people. Its impact grew because of the national program of land distribution promoted by the government for agriculture production. The program stems from a new state law that seeks to redistribute idle state land to farmers interested in agricultural production. On Youth Island, 2,300 people asked for land and have received it, with the right to work on it for 10 years (other periods can be added). A total of 13,000 hectares have been transferred. The final steps are the installation of two green houses and the strengthening local selling points. Overall - a great success!`