Chaplain leads trip to Cuba
By Neil Katsuyama, Staff
Reporter. Published Tuesday, January 18,
2005 in the Yale
Daily News.
This winter vacation, University Chaplain
Frederick Streets lent his services to the
suffering worldwide. After helping to write
a book on mental health in Rome, Streets
joined in a service trip to Cuba.
From Jan. 1 to Jan. 9, Streets made a visit
to Cuba with 26 members of Yale College,
the Yale Graduate School and the Yale Divinity
School; the First Presbyterian Church of
Hamden; and the Make A Difference Foundation.
There, they helped to build a vegetable
garden in the city of Guasmias to feed needy
Cuban children.
One of the group members, Gabriela Bernadett
'08, said she was glad to visit a country
with a very different culture.
"The trip was amazing," Bernadett
said. "It gave you a different view
of what a communist country is really like.
It didn't seem as Americanized as so many
other places."
Led by Sarah Garcia, the co-founder of
Make A Difference Foundation, the group
also visited a variety of other cities and
events in Cuba. They attended the National
Championship baseball game, spoke with a
member of the Cuban Parliament and visited
the cities of Havana, Mantanzas, Verdado
and Peric.
Luis Vasquez '07, another of the group
members, said he was glad the visit was
not limited to Havana.
"Because any tourists usually stay
in Havana, it was good actually getting
out to another principal city of Cuba,"
Vasquez said. "It was more reflective
of the rest of the country."
Vasquez, who has visited the Dominican
Republic several times, said one of the
biggest differences between Central America
and the United States is the lack of commercialism.
Elizabeth Jordan '06 said its absence was
refreshing.
"It's very different -- an entire
lack of commercialism," Jordan said.
"It was replaced by propaganda, but
there was no obsession with marketing and
branding."
Jordan said she liked the experience and
would like to return someday.
"I feel like I learned as much about
myself and the group as I did about Cubans,"
Jordan said. "It was enjoyable and
I would love to see relations get better
between our two governments."
Before heading to Cuba, Streets met in
Rome with 32 ministers of health from around
the world who shared their experiences working
with people suffering from the affects of
war and natural disasters. Sponsored by
the Caritas Initiative of the Vatican, the
Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma and the
mayor of Rome, the group has been meeting
for the past several years, with the meetings
designed to culminate in a book to be published
in a year and a half.
"It's a very worthwhile project with
a particular dimension of mental health,"
Streets said.
This past meeting, from Dec. 1 to Dec.
10, was their last, and each member submitted
a draft of his or her chapter to be put
in the book.
Tentatively titled "Trauma and the
Role of Mental Health in Post-Conflict Recovery,"
the book will focus on the group's findings
on the best mental health treatments for
trauma patients.
Streets said his chapter focused on spirituality
in mental health care, taken from his experiences
in Colombia with the Connecticut Conference
of the United Church of Christ.
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