Cuban-trained US doctors on their way to Haiti

Cuban-Trained U.S. Doctors on their Way to Haiti
Posted in Medical School featured announcement

Doctors Packing Medicines for Their Haiti Backpacks
February 3, 2010
MEDIA ADVISORY

Contact: Ellen Bernstein, 646/319-5902 Lucia Bruno 212/926-5757

Seven US Doctors Headed for Haiti on This Afternoon From Newark Airport
Graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine
Will Work Alongside Cuban Medical Brigade

US graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine are prepared to alleviate the pain and suffering of thousands of Haitian people.

The young physicians come from Harlem, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island in New York City; from Houston and from Minnesota. Two of them are currently working in Oakland, CA.

The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), which administers the scholarship program for US students, is raising funds and collecting medical supplies to support the young doctors' mission.

“These dedicated and skilled young doctors are ready to serve. They received their MD degrees in Cuba, and they are uniquely prepared for the multiple challenges of this urgent mission” said Rev. Lucius Walker Jr., executive director of IFCO. “We will send them to Haiti with backpacks full of medicines and supplies.

All of the doctors are graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba, which was founded as part of the Comprehensive Health Plan for Central America and the Caribbean that Cuba established in response to the devastation of Hurricanes Mitch and Georges in 1998.

The director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Mirta Roses commended the work of the Cuban medical teams in Haiti on January 24th. “The Cuban teams were already in Haiti—before the quake took place. They were the first responders treating earthquake victims."

PAHO reports that Cuba’s direct medical assistance to the Haitian people in the first 72 hours after the earthquake was critical. Cuban doctors have attended tens of thousands patients and performed thousands of surgeries. Cuban doctors working in 21 improvised health centers including 14 operating theatres with 16 surgical teams. Most recently they set up a tent hospital with ultrasound and x-ray equipment– on the site of an amusement park in Port-Au-Prince

More than 100 specialists from many countries (Venezuela, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and Canada) are also working with the Cuban health professionals.

A Cuban medical brigade of 350 physicians plus other medical personnel has been on the ground in Haiti for the last ten years, working in remote communities where people had no other access to health care services. More than 6,000 Cuban doctors have served in Haiti as part of that brigade. 400 young Haitians have also received full-scholarship medical training at the Latin American School of Medicine, and are now attending the wounded in Haiti.

The Latin American School of Medicine is now training students from 49 different nations of the Americas, Africa, and other regions. Among the graduates are 33 young people from the US.

The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), is the administrator of the scholarship program at the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba for US students.

Since 1967 IFCO has worked for racial, social, and economic justice.
Photos, video clips, and more information are available at www.ifconews.org

http://www.ifconews.org/node/723

fear Castro! He wants you to have free healthcare!