The US-Cuba Reconciliation Initiative began its work in 1999 as a program of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development (FRD).  Its work focuses initially on the reconciling role of people-to-people contact.

We seek to open opportunities for personal travel so that all interested Americans are able to see Cuba for themselves and make up their own minds about current US policy.  Only through dramatically broadened direct contact can the population of both nations overcome naturally the barriers and miscomprehension created by four decades of embargo, political confrontation, and separation.

We also seek to increase the efforts by American NGOs and educational institutions to address the human impact of the embargo in partnership with Cuban organizations.  The pages of the Interchange and of this web site report on the programs of American not-for-profit institutions with Cuba and on their often-troubling experience of applying for Treasury Department licenses to send relief, development and educational assistance.

We also welcome opportunities to cooperate with both not-for-profit and business institutions aspiring to a new chapter in US-Cuba relations.