DFAT funding stimulates Faculty of Arts community engagement in Cuba
A grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is supporting a project led by Professor Adrian Hearn (School of Languages and Linguistics) in Cuba. As part of DFAT’s Direct Aid Program, the project is assisting with plant-based nutrition and medicine production in an underserved district of Havana.
The project team visits the garden of prominent urban farmer Osvaldo Falcón in Havana, August 2022. Photo supplied.
Availability of imported medicines in Cuba has diminished owing to COVID-related supply disruptions and the United States embargo on the island’s foreign trade. In response to shortages, Cubans are drawing on traditional knowledge of nutritional and medicinal plants to treat common ailments.
Cuban traditional expertise in plant-based nutrition has been cultivated by Afro-Cuban communities since times of slavery, and since the 1990s this knowledge has been used in Cuba’s official urban agriculture programs. To assist these efforts the project is providing equipment such as water tanks, pumps, hosepipes, and gardening tools.
In August 2022 Professor Hearn visited Havana to consult with the community, with which he has worked since 2005. On behalf of the University of Melbourne he signed a cooperation agreement with the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation (FANJ) and began implementing the project with FANJ’s team of horticulture experts. Community leader Mr Victor Betancourt then joined Professor Hearn to present the project’s initial results at the Australian embassy in Mexico.
Professor Adrian Hearn and Mr Victor Betancourt presenting the project’s initial results at the Australian embassy in Mexico City. Photo supplied.
The project is funded by DFAT and facilitated by a University of Melbourne cooperation agreement with a prominent Cuban environmental NGO, the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation (FANJ). Updates about the initiative are frequently posted on the project website.
For more information contact Professor Adrian Hearn.