(Kaieteur News) – CARICOM’s humanitarian aid package for Cuba has finally been cleared for delivery, after funds sent to purchase supplies for the island were rejected three times over sanctions-related banking hurdles.

The update was delivered Wednesday at the closing media conference of the 51st Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in Saint Lucia.

The aid initiative was first announced in February at the conclusion of the 50th Regular Meeting in St Kitts and Nevis, when then-CARICOM Chairman Dr. Terrance Drew unveiled the plan in response to Cuba’s deepening humanitarian crisis. The island’s nearly 10 million residents have faced mounting economic hardship since the Trump administration cut off the flow of oil to Cuba earlier this year, in what CNN reported was an effort to pressure the communist-run island into major political and economic reform.