Cuba Adds More Doctors to the World

[Mika]

Source: Prensa Latina

Havana, Jul 22 (Prensa Latina) A total of 8,884 new health professionals, from dozens of countries and Cuba, will graduate in the coming days from universities in the Island.
This new graduation includes more than 4,000 doctors, 2,470 of which are Cuban, who got their degrees in different specialties, as medicine, stomatology, health technology, and nursing.

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Doctor Francisco Alberto Duran, director of national teaching of medicine at the Public Health Ministry, told the local press that 1,842 doctors from around 30 countries will also graduate this year at the Latin American School of Medicine.

Of that total, eight US youths will get their degrees, 1,551 others belong to the regional project for which the school was conceived, and the rest comes from the agreement of scholarships granted by the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

Almost 5,000 doctors have graduated from Cuban schools since 2005, through the ELAM free project and the Island's help, as solidarity with the world people, who need welfare and human development.

Working link here.



Read more: http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B12E49C86-7DB6-44B9-9047-30F4CA9789D5%7D)&language=EN

[Judi Lynn]

1. Their program to move young, disadvantaged students forward to their medical degree is wonderful!

Very few people know it happens at all. It would be easy to find out more about the program anytime at all by contacting IFCO (Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization):

Medical School Scholarship Program
at the Latin American School of Medical Sciences, Havana, Cuba


The people of Cuba have extended, to students from the US, the opportunity to study medicine on a full scholarhship at the prestigious Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba. IFCO/Pastors for Peace coordinates this program in the United States.

The Medical School curriculum includes a 12-week intensive Spanish language program for those who need it.

The program of The Latin American School of Medical Sciences is based on intensive advising and tutoring designed to help every student succeed. Students must pass competency exams at appropriate points in their course of study.

The six-year medical school program, which follow the pre-med program, begins every September and is divided into 12 semesters. Students study at the LASMS campus for the first two years, and then go to another of Cuba's 21 medical schools, which are located throughout the island, to complete their studies. The Cuban medical training model combines theory and practice and is oriented toward primary care, community medicine and hands-on internships.
(snip)

Applicant criteria

Applicants should:

• Be US citizens
  
• Be between the ages of 18 and 30 at the time of registration
  
• Be physically and mentally fit
  
• Come from the humblest and neediest communities in the US
  
• Be committed to practice medicine in poor and under served US communities after graduation
  
• Applicants will be prescreened. Final decisions about admissions will be made by a committee representing the Cuban Ministry of Public Health and the faculty of The
• Latin American School of Medical Sciences.
  (snip)

Background
During a Congressional Black Caucus delegation to Cuba, organized by IFCO/Pastors for Peace, caucus representative Bennie G. Thompson, a Congressman from the Mississippi Delta, remarked to President Fidel Castro that there are large areas in his district which do not have a single physician. President Castro responded with an offer of full scholarships for students from impoverished regions of the US to study medicine in Cuba. This offer was intended to be more than a short-term solution. It is the beginning of the creating of a heath care infrastructure for generations to come.

In his speech on Sept 8, 2000, at New York City's Riverside Church President Castro said, "we are prepared to grant a number of scholarships to poor youth who cannot afford to pay the $200,000 it costs to get a medical degree in the US." Cuba is offering 250 full scholarships per year for students in under served communities in the United States to study medicine in Cuba. Tuition, dormitory room and board, and textbooks are free of charge.

What we want from The Latin American School of Medical Sciences is for students from our sister nations to become imbued with the same doctrine in which our own doctors are educated, with that total devotion to their noble future profession - for a doctor is like a shepherd, a priest, a missionary, a crusader for the people's health and physical and mental well-being.
-- Cuban President Fidel Castro

More:
http://www.ifconews.org/MedicalSchool/main.htm

[Ghost Dog]

2. Not allowed. No fat profits in it. Invade the bastards now!

I wager the majority of those US students are non-PC economically-challenged but thoroughly committed and determined Black &/or Hispanic, furthermore...
:-)