The friendship between Finland and the eastern province of Las Tunas is time-tested. This is demonstrated by the stay, this week, of 12 members of the Friendship Association of that Nordic nation, when the Victoria de Girón volunteer work brigade is celebrating its 15th anniversary.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- European activists worked for three days in the Oncohematology ward of the Mártires de Las Tunas Pediatric Hospital, in another chapter of a long saga of direct contributions, both materially and financially, to the improvement of several areas of the health facility. On this occasion, they participated in construction actions related to the furniture and air conditioning systems of one of its most sensitive services.

The selfless contribution of the Finnish association is particularly important now, said Dr. María Cristina Cisneros Vázquez, the director of the “Mártires de Las Tunas,” since the intensification of the US economic blockade has had a very hard impact in recent years, causing a lack of diagnose equipment, as well as the shortage of supplies that prevents them from reducing and, eventually, eliminating the surgical waiting list that exceeds 600 patients.

“We can help,” said Anna Haavisto, a brigade member who arrived in Las Tunas for the first time, after listening to the hospital's efforts to overcome the difficulties. While the young Veeti Vantola stressed the value of this initiative to learn about the Cuban reality.

As usual, at the request of the Delegation of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), the agenda in Las Tunas included exchanges with representatives of the economic, social and cultural sectors in “the Balcón del Oriente Cubano” (Cuban Eastern Balcony), without forgetting their journey through Omaja, a rural town in the municipality of Majibacoa where their compatriots founded an agricultural colony at the beginning of the 20th century.