How our little group of Canadian members got involved:
Oct 96 - May 99 -Bob G. from Kitchener Ontario and myself Hugh H. from London, Ontario would make a point of meeting each other every day if possible at the central park or at the hotel pool to talk over any of the day's events [kind of a one-on-one] I had met Bob G. while he attended meetings in my hometown of London, Ontario and later to my surprise I run into him in this little town of Ceigo de Avila - population 45,000 about 500 kms east of Havana. We often talked about seeing if we could start a group here .... if not for the locals, at least for the tourists. As we had asked around an no one heard of Alcoholics Anonymous let a lone knew of any meetings in the area.
May 99 -Having traveled to Cuba for the past 7 years I found it impossible to find a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous unless I was to go to Havana were there was 9 meetings listed in the World Directory. On this trip while taking Spanish Lessons, I learned of a doctor who lived in Ceigo de Avila that was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. I asked my teacher if he would introduce me to him and the next thing you know .... I was being taken to a meeting that night
The meeting "took me back in time" ..... not that I was there then, what I mean is when you look at the pictures in the book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. The house had high ceilings, old wide wood trim, old wooden furniture and all the lighting to go with it. As I looked around the room, I did not see members in their "Sunday go-to-meeting best clothes".
They had about 30 - 35 members show up, 41 members call that meeting their home group. Another thing I noticed was, only one women, I talked with her after the meeting, and she had told me she was coming up on 2 years soon. Went on to tell me that she had brought a few women to the group, but they only attended one or two meetings and did not come back. I was also told that women find a great stigma in the admission of being an alcoholic.
The doctor told me that their members have very few "Big Books". To purchase a text book ..... it costs about $15 and a the average wage for a Cuban worker in $8 - $12 per month.
He told me that there was even fewer books like ........... Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. He told me of a group of them ..... that would travel to Santa Clara about 1 1/2 to 2 hours drive in an old car to attend a meeting so that they could read a copy of that book. They would have to get there 2 hours before the meeting so that they could have one person read aloud the book and return the next week to read more.
May 2000 - Possible 28 Day Program in Cuba - Dr. Joaquin ask to attend a meeting with two other members with long term sobriety. We discussed the possibility of setting up a 28 Day Program in the Ciego area of Cuba.
Presently men and women with serious alcoholic problems are treated as Psychiatric Patients in various hospitals and not as alcoholics. Their treatment does not address the symptoms of alcoholism. No education of alcohol is brought up or addressed. The doctors are not educated in alcohol as our doctors in Canada and the USA.
The members in the group had seen movies on television where people had been placed in 28 day programs such as Betty Ford Clinics and were interested in the success rate of such programs.
I told them that I would address this matter on our Internet Site and see if we could get a response from some of the members who work in the recovery field to see if we could get some ideas.
If we have any recovery professionals reading this, and have any ideas, it would be greatly appreciated if you drop us a line
Dec 2000 - Season's Greetings to all members and "all a sober 2001", we would like to thank those groups and members who donated books for our cause in Cuba.
Dec 2001 - Season's Greetings again to all members hoping another sober 2002. Again We would like to thank those groups and individual members
who donated books and literature for the cause in Cuba.
Dec 2002 - Season's Greetings as another year has come and gone, and we wish each and everyone one another sober year. Again we would like to thank all those members and groups who donated books and literature to groups in Cuba
Dec 2003 - Season's Greetings as another year has come and gone, and we would like to report that a few members are now taking books and literature when visiting Cuba.
Dec 2004 - Season's Greetings again, we are glad to report that more members visiting Cuba are taking books and literature when they visit.
Dec 2005 - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our Membership and a special pray to those alcoholics still suffering. Last year we found an increase in the number of members reporting that they were taking books to Cuba.
If you or your group would like to donate books and/or literature, please contact us through our "e-mail button"
