HERMANOS AL RESCATE Hermanos al Rescate es una organización pro-democracia de carácter humanitario. Nuestra misión es promover y apoyar los esfuerzos del pueblo cubano, destinados a liberarse por si mismo de cualquier dictadura, presente o futura, por medio de la lucha cívica (noviolencia activa). Una parte integral de nuestro esfuerzo es salvar las vidas de los refugiados que escapan de la Isla y asistir a los familiares de los presos políticos.
|
BROTHERS TO THE RESCUE Brothers to the Rescue is a pro-democracy, humanitarian organization. Our mission is to promote and support the efforts of the Cuban people to free themselves from dictatorship through the use of active nonviolence. An integral part of our effort is to save the lives of refugees escaping the Island and to assist the families of political prisoners.
|
Brothers to the Rescue was founded in May 1991 after
several pilots were touched by the death of a fifteen year old adolescent named
Gregorio Pérez Ricardo, who fleeing Castro's Cuba on a raft, perished of severe
dehydration. The organization, a small,
non-profit corporation, conducts its humanitarian missions searching for
rafters in the Florida Straits, through the efforts of a group of pilots,
observers and volunteers from numerous countries, including Argentina, Cuba,
Perú, France, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, the United States,
Venezuela and former Cuban rafters.
Brothers to the Rescue has conducted over 2,400
aerial search missions. These
operations have resulted in the rescue of more than 4,200 men, women and
children ranging from a five day old infant to a man 79 years of age, and the
rescue of thousands of others during the refugee crisis of 1994.
It has been estimated that Brothers to the Rescue pilots have saved one life for every two hours of flight time. This is considered a record rate among professional search and rescue organizations such as the Civil Air Patrol and the United States Air Force. Additionally, there have been flights to drop food and water supplies to stranded rafters in deserted Bahamian Islands, as well as weekly deliveries of emergency food, medicine and clothing to a Cuban refugee detention camp in Nassau, Bahamas. The organization has also conducted search missions for survivors of shipwrecks of U.S. citizens, Bahamians, Haitians and missing divers.
Brothers to the Rescue plans to maintain an active
program that addresses the most basic human needs of those struggling for
freedom.