God Bless Cuba: Give Where Washington Sends Its Aid

This is an invitation. Give this week, through God Bless Cuba, to one of eight charities that reach Cubans directly: the Catholic Church's own network, Protestant and Jewish relief groups, and the Salvation Army. You give in dollars, on QUSD, the dollar rail QvaPay runs between the United States and Cuba. It takes two minutes, and 0% goes to a platform fee.

Three things make this worth your money: Washington has already chosen the same channel, the channel has survived sixty-five years of pressure, and QvaPay is the only rail that can carry a gift to it without the state in between.

Washington chose the Church

In January 2026, after Hurricane Melissa, the State Department said it was working with the Catholic Church to deliver relief from Miami. In February it announced a further tranche delivered directly to the Cuban people. On 13 May Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered $100 million in humanitarian aid on one condition: neither the Cuban government nor its military would touch the distribution, only humanitarian and faith-based partners such as Caritas. The first flight left Miami on 21 July with food and hygiene kits for up to 700 families, handed out by parishes with Caritas Cuba; the same day Catholic Relief Services announced a $60 million State Department award to reach nearly 200,000 households with Caritas Cuba, and in September Caritas Cuba was told more aid would follow.

The man behind the commitment is a Cuban American and a practicing Catholic. Rubio was baptized Catholic, spent part of his childhood in other churches, and returned to the Catholic Church, where he was confirmed and married; on Ash Wednesday 2025 he went on television as Secretary of State with the ashes still on his forehead, and in May 2026 he met Pope Leo XIV with Cuba on the agenda. The policy is the government's, not the Church's. What it shows is that Washington trusts the Church's network to reach families the state does not.

The network that survived

In 1961 the revolutionary government took over Catholic schools and put more than 130 priests on the ship Covadonga to Spain; the Jesuits' Belén school moved to Miami. For three decades the state was officially atheist and believers were kept out of the Party. Then the thaw:

Caritas Cuba, founded by the bishops in 1991, works today across all 11 dioceses with hundreds of parish groups, serving the elderly, children at risk, people with disabilities and disaster victims. It is one of the few independent organizations on the island, and it is the partner the United States now names.

God Bless Cuba: eight charities, one dollar rail

God Bless Cuba lets anyone give to the network Washington chose and to six more faith-based charities that reach Cubans without going through the state. Pick the one you trust:

You choose the amount, from $5, and pay with a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, a U.S. bank, PayPal, crypto, or a QvaPay balance. Every gift is recorded per charity on QvaPay's books, the totals are public, and each charity's total is remitted in QUSD to its own verified QvaPay account.

Why only QvaPay can carry these gifts

Every other route to a charity in Cuba runs through the state. U.S. banks do not wire to Cuba. Western Union closed in 2020 when sanctions cut off Fincimex, the military-run company behind it, and stopped again in February 2025 when its new processor, Orbit, went on the Restricted List. Couriers take a cut and can be stopped at the airport. QvaPay solved the problem at both ends of the trip:

• First mile: the gift enters as a verified dollar on U.S. books. QvaPay is a U.S. company registered with FinCEN as a money services business; every donor is screened; QUSD is backed one to one by USDC and bank cash. The charity's balance is a dollar balance in the United States. QvaPay never pays into a Cuban bank, so there is no state account to freeze and no state processor to switch off.
• Last mile: a peer, not a bank, turns dollars into pesos. When Caritas needs pesos to buy rice, QvaPay's peer-to-peer market finds a screened Cuban with pesos who buys the charity's QUSD at the rate Cubans set among themselves, not the state bank's official rate. That peer is the on/off-ramp: the peer is the ramp, P2P beats the bank, and SkyMind matches and screens every trade. The peers are Cuba's forexpreneurs, and the pesos a parish spends reach the private shops and MIPYMES that sell it food, medicine and solar power.
• Private, not anonymous. QvaPay verifies and screens every account, as U.S. law requires, but nothing about your gift goes to the Cuban government, and your name appears on the site only if you choose to show it.

As far as we know, no other U.S.-registered rail moves dollars to a charity in Cuba with no state bank and no state processor in the chain. The rules for donors are in our guide to donating to Cuba; how the whole system is policed is at cubanew.com/compliance.

The legal basis

Gifts to religious organizations in Cuba are authorized under 31 CFR § 515.570(c), and gifts to independent humanitarian groups under § 515.570(g). QvaPay processes them as a payment service, not a bank: in QvaPay's reading of § 515.421 and OFAC FAQ 756, balances held to make authorized payments are incident to those payments. Your gift goes to the charity you choose. QvaPay and New Cuba stand behind it: every gift is tracked per charity and remitted in QUSD to the charity's own QvaPay account. Donations to Cuba-based Catholic charities are not currently tax-deductible. God Bless Cuba is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of State, the Catholic Church or any charity listed.

Give this week

1. Open God Bless Cuba and choose one of the eight charities.
2. Pick an amount and a way to pay, and tick the four statements.
3. Pay, and get your receipt by email; your gift shows in the charity's public total.

Washington already trusts these networks with $100 million. You can give $25 tonight to the one you trust most. God bless Cuba.