Brian Stoops (right) hands over donated AIDS meds in
Santiago de Cuba last January.

Southern ,
Transport:  

Vermont Project Delivers
AIDS Meds to Cuba

BY EUAN BEAR *

- towe — It becomes clear
very quickly when talking
to Brian Stoops that the

high point of his life so far
occurred last January. That’s
when he handed a packet repre-
senting $l5,000 worth of
HIV/AIDS medications to a man
named Leudis at a clinic in
Santiago de Cuba.

The medications were
donated by people living with
HIV/AIDS who had changed
drugs, or by the families, house-
mates, and partners of patients
who had died. Stoops, who works
with Vermont CARES as a peer
advocate, organized the collection
of meds that would otherwise
have ended up in landfills or
flushed down the toilet, and then
he raised the money to go.

The trip, he said, wasn’t
the first time Vermont medical
supplies had been sent to Cuba. In
fact, since 2003, Caribbean
Medical Transport (CMT) has
delivered more than ten 40-foot
shipping containers of supplies,
vitamins and clothing to the
island nation declared pariah by
the U.S. government. The sup-
plies go to Havana as well as to
eastern and rural areas of Cuba.
Each container holds about 4,000
pounds of supplies, and it costs
about $2500 to send it south. But
last J anuary’s trip was the first
time the group was able to send a
delegation with the shipment.

“The Cubans are the
friendliest, nicest people I’ve ever
met,” Stoops declared, “even the
police. They said they didn’t have
anything against Americans, they
know it’s just their wacky govem-
ment and our wacky government

" 

butting heads.”

Marisha Kazeniac, the
licensed travel coordinator for the
group, was also impressed by “the
immediate rapport between the
folks in Cuba and the folks from
Vermont,” she said. The January
trip was not her first time travel‘-
ing to Cuba, more like her 15th.
CMT is a homegrown Vermont

‘ project, she added, and its direc-

tor, Rick Schwag, lives in
Lyndonville.
Stoops said one of the

most urgent needs of the Cubans .

is lubricated, U.S.-made con-
doms. “They don’t like to use‘
Chinese made no-lube condoms.
They say they’re inferior,” Stoops
said. Since his return from the
January trip, Stoops has made
contact with a condom maker,
Global Manufacturing, which
donated 1,000 lubricated condoms
for the next shipment.

The group, Caribbean
Medical Transport of Vermont, is
licensed by the United States
Department .of»Commerce to
deliver its medical supplies to
communities throughout Cuba. It
is organizing a new trip to Cuba
to assist in medical projects
including continued work with
the AIDS community, according
to Kazeniac. Individuals interest-
ed in traveling to Cuba with CMT
in July must have experience in
the health field, (including but not
limited to experience with AIDS
work), experience in the delivery
of humanitarian aid, or technical
expertise related to the delivery of
goods through CMT.

The July trip is focused
on visiting health care facilities,
meeting with handicapped and
HIV-positive people who are sup-
ported by CMT donations, and
determining what additional
needs the group might be able to
meet. As a follow-up to this visit,‘
CMT will send up to 20,000
pounds of medicine and supplies
to the facilities and individuals
the group visits. Travel is sched-
uled for July 8-15 and space is
limited. V

For more information on the proj-
ect and qualifications for travel,
contact Caribbean Medical
Transport at 802-864-4334, or
802-626-5578, cuba@together.net
or www.cubacaribe.com.

S O m C T 0
Foundation of Vermont

The Samara Foundag ,, Vermont is a
charitable foundation ose mission is to
support and strengthen Vermont's gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgendered communities
today and build an endowment for tomorrow.

ndatio’n;org‘ ‘ :_

Practice limited
' to male clientele

 

THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE
William Coil, NCMT

8()2°658'2390
800°830- 502 5

 

so-o-o-o-o-o-o

BOB GREEN, LCMHC

LICENSSD C.LlNlCAL MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR

SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT
(302) 658-2390
(800) ssasozs

XNDIVIDUALS 86 COUPLES
MAG!-:LmN,vHM>, MEDICAID 8! MANY OTHER INSURANCE
mzocnams ACCEPTED

the JNTAINS