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A Grand Falls-Windsor woman with deep ties to Cuba says she’s heartbroken by conditions the country is facing, but remains committed to helping Cubans access the aid they need.<\/p>\n
Desiree Lane-Pardy has taken over 30 trips to Cuba since the early 2000s working as a gig piano player at a resort. She was supposed to travel to the country in April, but most Canadian flights into the country are currently suspended.<\/p>\n
Cuba is facing a fuel and electricity crisis amid U.S. President Donald Trump halting the flow of oil from Venezuela and musing about taking over the country. <\/a><\/p>\n The nation was plunged into darkness earlier this week when the national electrical grid collapsed. Though the grid has since been reconnected, Cubans had already faced months of blackouts due to fuel shortages and obsolete infrastructure.<\/p>\n Most, \u2060including those in the \u2060capital of Havana, were seeing 16 or more blackout hours a day, even before the latest grid collapse, Reuters reports.<\/p>\n Lane-Pardy said friends she’s spoken to are safe, but struggling.<\/p>\n “It’s heartbreaking, especially when you know them and you know what they’re going through,” Lane-Pardy told CBC News Wednesday.<\/p>\n “When they can get a message out to you, it might be something like ‘My friend, I’ve had 42 hours no power. No running water. I pray the resort’s open soon so we get our jobs back’. And it’s just very heartbreaking.”<\/p>\n Each trip Lane-Pardy took came with suitcases full of items people who would reach out to her needed, she said, from food and basic supplies to hospital equipment to help with things like C-sections.<\/p>\n She’s now working to help people however she can from her home in Newfoundland, but knows it will likely be months before she can return to Cuba.<\/p>\n “I’m just hoping that something happens soon, and it’s for the better,” she said.<\/p>\n Red Cross concerned over growing crisis<\/p>\n For organizations who can help people on the ground, like the Canadian Red Cross, the crisis has grown more concerning in recent months.<\/p>\n “For the average person, life is very difficult in Cuba. And we’re concerned that it’s becoming more and more challenging every day,” Chiran Livera told CBC News from Panama City Thursday.<\/p>\n Livera is the senior operations manager with international operations for the Canadian Red Cross, helping lead co-ordination for the delivery of aid in Cuba.<\/p>\n “We are very concerned, of course, with the humanitarian situation that’s unfolding.”<\/p>\n Livera said the fuel crisis is affecting how the Red Cross can respond in its delivery of essential goods. Deliveries require fuel, which brings an additional challenge once goods reach the country.<\/p>\n “There is access to fuel, limited fuel, so we’re trying to use that for life-saving emergency activities such as ambulances and other things. So we’re also having to ration, and choose what we do. So getting items to Cuba is challenging,” he said.<\/p>\n He said the most effective way to support Cubans is through monetary donations, as it can go directly to the Cuban Red Cross for aid.<\/p>\n Download our\u00a0free CBC News app<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our\u00a0daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click\u00a0here to visit our landing page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-550930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774087209_275_default.jpg\")
Lane-Pardy said part of her work has involved making sure Cubans can access food supplies and hot meals. (Submitted by Desiree Lane-Pardy)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774087209_391_default.jpg\")
Chiran Livera is the operations lead for the Canadian Red Cross’s humanitarian response in Cuba. (CBC)<\/p>\n