Cuba 2017

Sometimes human relations triumph over government relations, and sometimes you don’t need to speak the same language to communicate.

Cuba has free healthcare but because of its history and years of embargo there is a shortage of medicine, hospitals lack basic supplies, and medical technologies and specialty surgeries are almost nonexistent. Most people make an average of about $25 a month.

Operation Walk Carolinas first set foot on Cuban soil as a team in May 2017. Equipped with as many supplies as the team could take, their destination was a military hospital in Havana. The Cuban hospital staff welcomed OpWalk with open arms as preparations were made to care for the many Cubans who need joint replacements. Doctors, nurses, scrub techs, volunteers and more performed 51 joint operations on 46 patients in just three and a half days – all for free.