Canadian Aid Workers Deliver Supplies to Cuba Amid Blackouts

Two Canadian humanitarian workers arrived in Havana on Friday to deliver essential supplies amid Cuba's worsening energy crisis, where residents report more time without electricity than with it.

Leanne Isaak and Elise Hjalmarson, co-directors of the nonprofit One Shared Future / Un Futuro Compartido, based in Kelowna, British Columbia, brought 14 suitcases packed with medicine, solar equipment, multivitamins, adult diapers, surgical gloves, menstrual products and other goods. In an interview from Havana on Saturday, they described plans to partner with local Cuban groups to distribute the items across the island over several days. They intend to hire a driver with an electric vehicle for transportation and use cash donations to purchase rice and beans for further aid. "Some of this is going to hospitals, it's going to women's centres. We have a whole variety of places that we built connections with," Isaak said. She also works at the University of British Columbia and has made nearly a dozen trips to Cuba for charity efforts.

The women encountered the crisis immediately upon landing. A power outage halted operations at the airport until a generator kicked in, allowing their...