Yaidelbys Zayas Domínguez could not hide her emotion this Friday when she left to make her first deliveries of medicines to patients assigned to the El Cuartelón pharmacy.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- With this action, she officially started Ecocardinal here, a project promoted by the Provincial Passenger and General Cargo Transport Company (CARDINAL) and the Federation of Cuban Women in the province of Las Tunas.
"I am very happy to start and to be able to help these people who must now stay at home to protect themselves from the pandemic," Yayi, as she is affectionately called, said. She is one of the 30 women in the province integrated into this initiative that aims to link the state entity with entrepreneurs to establish parcel, home delivery, and passenger transfer services. For this purpose, the Federation of Cuban Women in the territory organized their training as part of the National Program for the Advancement of Women in Cuba.
Elisandra Fonseca Mustelier, Director of Development and Technological Innovation at CARDINAL, explained that they will also promote communication and care for the environment. "Creating awareness in people to adopt responsible behaviors in this regard," she said.
Although the restriction measures due to the surge of COVID-19 in the country delayed the start of the driving course arranged with the Road Education and Driving Company (TRAMOS), the Ecocardinal coordinators, using electric tricycles purchased for this function, gave the first step with Yayi, who has been licensed to drive motorcycles for seven years. On this inaugural date, she took, at no additional cost, the medications to 12 patients assigned to "El Cuartelón," which they must purchase monthly to treat their chronic conditions.
"It is a great help for us since we have several patients who cannot leave their homes because they are bedridden or have limited movement," Yoenny Mendoza, administrator of “El Cuartelón,” said. In total, more than 70 of their regular customers could benefit from this initiative.
Ecocardinal is part of much larger plans of the Provincial Transportation Company to expand service options, its director Luis Enrique Arias Peña said. Later on, he added, they hope to establish other modalities that would allow users of the system to receive parcels arriving in the country through international airports directly at their homes, without having to travel to distant cities, such as Havana or Santiago de Cuba. "We will need to create all the security mechanisms for the transfer and custody, but we want to do it," Arias Peña affirmed.
