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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA street vendor waits for customers on the Malec\u00f3n during a blackout in Havana, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ramon Espinosa)<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Spanish they say, \u2018We don\u2019t have blackouts, we have lights-on,\u2019 because (they\u2019re) more often in the dark than they have electricity,\u201d added Elise Hjalmarson, also a co-director of the non-profit.<\/p>\n
The women, who live in Kelowna, B.C., arrived in Cuba on Friday with 14 suitcases full of medicine, solar equipment, multivitamins, adult diapers, surgical gloves and menstrual products, among other goods.<\/p>\n
In an interview from Havana on Saturday, they said they plan to find a driver with an electric car and, in partnership with Cuban-led groups, distribute the items across the island over several days. They also plan to buy rice and beans with cash donations for distribution.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of this is going to hospitals, it\u2019s going to women\u2019s centres. We have a whole variety of places that we built connections with,\u201d said Isaak, who also works at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n
Life on the Caribbean island has been rapidly deteriorating since the U.S. removed Venezuela\u2019s leader in January, halting critical petroleum shipments from the nation that had been a steadfast ally to Havana. U.S. President Donald Trump has also threatened tariffs on any country selling or supplying Cuba with oil.<\/p>\n
The island has since been relying on its own natural gas, solar power and oil to run thermoelectric plants, but that hasn\u2019t been enough to meet demand.<\/p>\n
Isaak and Hjalmarson said they experienced the dire situation as soon as they landed. There was a power outage at the airport. They heard a flicker and a generator, and the conveyor belt carrying their bags began moving minutes later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we had a power outage in the evening when we got to our Airbnb, and then we had another one in the morning, so you can see the frequency. This portion of the city, about a year ago, would maybe get less than a handful of power outages,\u201d said Isaak, who has made nearly a dozen trips to Cuba for her charity work.<\/p>\n
The women said they carried all 14 of their suitcases up several flights of stairs because an outage brought to a halt the elevator in the building where they\u2019re staying.<\/p>\n
Many of the nation\u2019s 11 million residents are struggling to keep food from spoiling. Hospitals have cancelled surgeries. The leading university has reduced classes due to the power outages and transportation shutdowns.<\/p>\n
Trump is demanding, in part, that Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel leave his position, release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for a lifting of sanctions.<\/p>\n
After Cuba\u2019s electric grid collapsed last week, spurring an island-wide blackout, Trump told reporters he believed he\u2019d soon have \u201cthe honour of taking Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aid shipments are beginning to arrive and a Russian oil delivery is expected this month, but fuel shortages remain critical.<\/p>\n
Isaak said the challenges she and Hjalmarson are facing don\u2019t compare to those faced by Cubans.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are tired, they\u2019re frustrated, they\u2019re stressed. There\u2019s so much uncertainty,\u201d Isaak said. \u201cA lot of them, when they describe how they\u2019re feeling, they say they\u2019re surviving.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Cubans are surviving by finding the joy in daily life, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were walking around like two in the morning and people were out playing dominoes on the street. Music was happening, people were dancing,\u201d Isaak said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cSome Cubans hate the word resilient, but they are such an incredibly resilient people and they find joy in being with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The process of distributing items over the next several days feels daunting, Isaak added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019re excited to be here, and to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2026.<\/p>\n
\u2014 With files from Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Canadians on a humanitarian mission in Cuba say it\u2019s easier for locals to count the number of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-553701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553701","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=553701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}