St. Catharines, Ont. "We often joke that we help turn tourists into missionaries," says Dr. Ken Taylor. Along with his wife, Denise, this family physician founded Not Just Tourists, an organization which enlists Canadian tourists in its drive to distribute medical supplies around the world.
Delivering basic aid
Both in their 50s, Ken and Denise have volunteered in their local Anglican church -- which has a sister parish near the village of Santiago De Cuba in Cuba -- for years. Through their Cuban counterparts, they learned just how scarce medicines were in the countryside. So, 10 years ago when the Taylors were planning a cycling trip through Cuba, Ken packed a suitcase with some antibiotics and other supplies. Once there the Taylors gave these out to physicians in remote jungle settlements. Denise recalls cycling up a mountain along a dirt track -- "It wasn't even a road" -- to a tiny one-room clinic. "Patients were sitting on a semicircle of boulders outside: that was the doctor's waiting room," she says.
Although they were well-educated and up-to-date, most of the doctors had such limited access to medicines that they could offer only herbal treatments to their patients. "One doctor told me that he hadn't had any antibiotics for his patients for two years," says Ken. As a result, people were still dying from such simple problems as infected wounds, problems that basic medicines can cure.
Such inadequate health care shocks many travelling Canadians, and the Taylors were no exception. Once they saw the tremendous need and poverty up close, Denise and Ken vowed to help. Learning that the Cuban government allows every tourist to bring in up to 10 kilograms of humanitarian aid each time he or she enters the country, the couple -- along with 10 friends -- returned that year carrying suitcases full of supplies.
