This concert is being produced as a fundraising effort to support an organization in Havana suggested to Colin by a musician friend that he met there in 2019 who is involved with the organization and feels that it is a place where the money we raise will directly and quickly help people in need. The organization is called International Christian Community and they currently provide care to 75 elders in their community who need support in the best of times but are suffering particularly badly under the current embargo, which is decimating health and quality of life for the Cuban people.

There is more detailed information below the artist bio and video, but in short, the organization employs 5 full-time workers trained as elderly caregivers who make house visits to check on their mental and physical health, buy groceries for them, bring medicine, transport them to appointments, keep them company, and more. The money raised will buy food, toiletries, and medicine. They currently do not have enough money to cover the minimum 2026 expenses for the 75 elders in their care, an annual budget that comes to $21,000 USD total.

BAY AREA MONEY GOES A LONG WAY IN CUBA! Please consider contributing beyond the cost of admission if you are able. Donations can be made both by naming your own price when purchasing a ticket and at the event itself. 80% of proceeds will be donated until expenses are met, after which 100% of proceeds will be donated. Thank you!

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BAND BIO
Colin Cotter (guitar, vox) and Sumaia Jackson (5-string fiddle, vox) bring “California Celtic” at its best to RootStock Arts Center with a deep groove and much soul in a set featuring original fiddle tunes and songs alongside reenvisioned traditional and contemporary Celtic and USAmerican folk music. The duo deftly moves from blazing fiddle tunes to beautiful ballads and back again, pulls off tightly arranged pieces and lets loose with improvised solos and free-flowing arrangements, joins their voices sweetly in harmony, and takes a few swings at the gravity of the harsh world around us, all while highlighting the joy of organic interplay between musicians and gathering in community around music.

With driving groove and a smooth, open sound, fiddler and tunestress Sumaia Jackson is a quintessential modern West Coast fiddler. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, Jackson was awarded a full scholarship to get her Bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music in the American Roots Music department. She has toured all over the world with Jayme Stone’s Folklife and Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards—playing places such as the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Celtic Connections, Planet Bluegrass, and the Edmonton Folk Festival. She has also been a member of the Real Vocal String Quartet (who composed and recorded music for a world music Culture Kin project) and released her debut fiddle record—Möbius Trip—on May 1st, 2019, featuring Colin as a guitarist on several tracks.

Colin is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and creative-at-large who has played gigs from coast to coast in the USA, toured internationally in Canada, Ireland, and Spain, and teaches regularly at some of the top folk music camps in the country. Growing up fully immersed in music, at four years old his mom gave him a fiddle and began teaching him to play the tunes she had learned herself as a child, building on several generations of a family tradition in Finnish folk music. Somewhere down the line, he picked up the guitar both for the practical purpose of accompanying himself singing and out of a deep affinity for sitting in the rhythmic belly of the beast when playing with fiddlers and has since crafted a unique approach to expressing on the instrument rooted in tradition while artfully indulging spontaneity and welcoming the unconventional. He has released several albums with bands he co-founded, MAC (Perfectly Manufactured Reality, 2018) and A Thousand Years at Sea (4 releases between 2009-2014) and has multiple new releases in the works with his current projects that include an edgy, electro-acoustic adventure with fiddler / violist Ryan McKasson that the two are calling Old Growth Graveyard and a duo with fiddler Adrianna Ciccone.

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ADDITIONAL FUNDRAISER INFO
Who are the Beneficiaries?
Seventy five (75) elderly, vulnerable men and women, living in their respective homes in Havana municipalities such as: Playa, Plaza; 10 de Octubre and Centro Habana. A large number of the beneficiaries are over 80 years old, and none have relatives living abroad.

How are the beneficiaries selected?
The project targets individuals who are living in extremely precarious situations owing to their age, lack of financial resources, and lack of family support. Individuals are identified by a member of the church, or in many cases are referred by neighbors or other people who have heard about our work. Criteria are:

– Over 60 years old (*)
– No family members who are able to care for them.
– Live alone in their own homes and are unable to secure a place in a care home.
– Have insufficient financial resources to cover their needs, receiving between 1528 MN and 2000 MN per month (15 to 20 dollars) from social assistance/ pension payments.
– The Government social workers do not have the capacity to cover their care needs.
– Note: It is not a requirement to be Christian or to belong to a church
– (*) In some exceptional cases, people with disabilities who are under the age of 60 are accepted into the scheme.

How do we help them?
The program employs 5 full time christian workers who have been trained as elderly carer and are members of our local church. They work with the group of elderly people, each person attending to 15 project beneficiaries. The workers make house visits , ensuring that each person is visited (at least) once a week. The workers functions are to:

– Check on the mental and physical wellbeing of the beneficiaries.
– Clean their homes if necessary and change bed sheets for the 20 bedridden individuals
– Collect the items owned to them through the libreta (foodcard) if the individuals are unable to walk to their market independently.
– Purchase additional food stuffs to help guarantee a sufficient and balanced diet. Beneficiaries are asked about their personal preferences, and their medical condition is also taken into account. These items include fruit, vegetables, meat (very expensive at the moment, it is also impossible to afford), and powdered milk (not possible to get under the conditions of the country).
– Purchase toiletries (soap, toothpaste) and washing powder for clothes (currently quarterly
although the aim is to provide monthly).
– Organize hospital appointments for the beneficiaries and take them to the appointments if
needed.
– Source medicines that is not available in Cuba to be donated from abroad.
– Address counseling needs for individuals who are mentally impaired or depressed.
– Provide companionship to these people in as much as time allows.

What do we need and what do we buy?
– Medicines and medical implements such as analgesics, antiobiotics, vitamins, medicines for high blood pressure, antidiarrheals, stomach relief medicines, adult diapers, wheelchairs, blood pressure cuffs, syringes and others.
– Toiletries such as soap, toothpaste, towels, detergent, wipers, dental floss, deodorant and others.
– Food such as powder milk, protein foods, fruits and vegetables, grains and others.

Minimun Budget for a year based on $20 USD per elder per/ month + salary to 5 workers:

Salary – $50 x 12 workers x 12 months = $3,000
Food – $20 x 75 elders x 12 months = $18,000
Total 2026 Minimum Budget = $21,000

THERE IS CURRENTLY NOT ENOUGH MONEY TO COVER THE MINIMUM 2026 BUDGET