Rock around the Blockade is supporting this fundraising campaign to buy equipment for ventilators for Cuban patients with Covid-19. They are blocked from purchasing new machines by the illegal, punitive US blockade. Please donate what you can and share widely.


cuba covid 19

When times are hard, that is when we most need generosity, kindness and compassion. We appeal to that generosity, that makes us better people, as we turn to you in asking for help. We need to buy components to build ventilators to support COVID-19 patients with medical complications in Cuba.

As you may know, Cuba cannot buy new ventilators or repair old ones because the companies that previously supplied ventilators to Cuba were acquired by a US company (Vyaire Medical Inc). The US blockade imposed on Cuba forbids any type of trading, even of medical items in the middle of this pandemic. However, people still need to be treated and saved.

Cuban institutions in health, research and academia have come together to repair old ventilators and to build new devices to support infected patients. Funds from this appeal will support Cuba in building ventilators using designs that the international community has kindly made available for free on the web. Specifically, funds from this campaign will be used to support building ventilators using the design of the MIT Emergency Ventilator (E-Vent) Project. For this project, Cuban scientists are in close contact with, and studying, the experiences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels), UCLA, and McGill University. In this way, -through collaboration, open-source and solidarity- we can work around the US blockade of Cuba and help sick people.

We – you and me – can save patients in Cuba by contributing to this campaign.

This is an urgent request. We need to raise £25 000. Time is short, people are dying. 

Until the £25K target is not reached, we cannot use the funds. Please, make your contribution today.

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Dr Miriam Palacios-Callender & Dr Valia Rodriguez-Rodriguez


This is an initiative of  Cubanos en UK in collaboration with the Cuban Center for Neurosciences

Dr Miriam Palacios-Callender is a Cuban scientist resident in the United Kingdom

Dr Valia Rodriguez Rodriguez is a Cuban medical doctor and academic currently residing in the United Kingdom.