Guantanamo-.- When the Melissa made landfall in eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm, once again the response of the government’s resolve and the willingness of Cubans was tested, which, as a result, leaves behind valuable lessons, especially regarding the capacity to foresee and anticipate events, to take and implement measures in the areas of greatest impact and emergency, and thus mitigate the situation of those most affected.
One of the lessons learned was “Anticipatory Action,” consisting of the implementation of a set of coordinated operations between the United Nations system, Civil Defense, and the Cuban State, which facilitates the positioning of food and other supplies in evacuation centers, warehouses, and territories days before the hurricane’s landfall.
The World Food Programme (WFP), with more than 60 years of assistance and presence in Cuba and Guantánamo, with projects aimed at improving the food and nutritional security of different vulnerable groups, in close coordination with the authorities of the Provincial Defense Council (CDP), supplied evacuation centers with grains (peas), rice, and oil, which allowed them to cover lunch and dinner for six days for 60,500 people in Guantánamo.
“This is the first time that ‘Anticipatory Action’ has been implemented in Cuba, with these products reaching the different territories and warehouses of the Wholesale Company before the meteorological event occurred. The food, moreover, meets the established nutritional requirements,” explained Norberto Roll, representative of the World Food Programme in Guantánamo.
After assessing the experience of delivering food before the hurricane as “very appropriate and positive,” the WFP representative indicated that “as traditionally happens after the occurrence of certain natural disasters or other extreme events, the food response project for different vulnerable age groups is already being prepared.”
