{"id":193672,"date":"2019-02-15T14:20:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T19:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=193672"},"modified":"2019-02-15T17:14:52","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T22:14:52","slug":"cuban-american-teachers-donations-for-tornado-victims-retained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/cuban-american-teachers-donations-for-tornado-victims-retained\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuban-American teacher\u2019s donations for tornado victims retained"},"content":{"rendered":"

The funds raised by the Cuban-American professor <\/span>Carlos Lazo<\/span><\/a> and his Seattle students for the victims of the tornado in Havana have been frozen by the U.S. platform GoFundMe since last January 30.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lazo made public on his Facebook page that for days he has had difficulties accessing the 3,775 dollars donated so far in <\/span>the campaign<\/span><\/a> he organized through this donation service.<\/span><\/p>\n

GoFundMe and other similar fundraising services, such as Facebook, require additional information about the destination and use of the money collected for countries sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We thought that GoFundMe would be a good way to mobilize students, friends, parents and community to channel our humanitarian efforts. Instead, their organization (on purpose, or by negligence) has almost interrupted our efforts,” said Lazo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a>
Screenshot of an email of GoFundMe to Carlos Lazo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lazo explained to OnCuba<\/strong> that the money collected would go directly to the victims affected by the recent tornado in Havana, where he will be going with a group of his students on February 14 as part of an educational trip and cultural exchange.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Since we started our campaign, I have answered many of the letters from GoFundMe, where they requested more information about our effort,” Lazo said, adding that he gave them every detail they asked for, which at that time allowed them to continue with the campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, when the funds started being paid out, the subsidiary WePay (which works with GoFundMe) suspended the deposit, says Lazo, and they asked them for more information about what type of products they would buy and who would be the beneficiaries of the funds and donations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a>
Screenshot of an email of GoFundMe to Carlos Lazo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lazo sent the information and a list with the names of the people to whom the donations would go. But it did not work.<\/span><\/p>\n

After that, there were a series of discrepancies between GoFundMe and WePay that continually approved and suspended the funds, in search of more information.<\/span><\/p>\n

Teacher Lazo<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n