[NYTr] Cuba Graduates 2,470 New Doctors
 
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 00:20:26 -0500 (CDT)


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Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
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Cuba Graduates 2,470 New Doctors

Havana, July 25 (acn) Cuban Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer
described the graduation on Tuesday of 2,470 new doctors from Cuba and
a host of other nations as the practical expression of the ideas of
President Fidel Castro.

The eveningbs graduation from the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences
in Havana included the third graduating class of the Havana-based Latin
American School of Medicine, with over 1,800 doctors including eight
physicians from the United States receiving their diplomas.

Nationwide, Cuba graduated a total of 8,884 medical professionals this
year from various nations as doctors, dentists, nurses and health
technicians, said Balaguer.

The public health minister further noted that at present 53,000 young 
people from Cuba and 88 other countries are taking medical courses in 
Cuba, while Cuban specialists are training other students in their 
respective nations.

At the same time, Cuban doctors are currently assisting 60 million
people around the world, the Health Minister, he added.

Reverend Lucius Walker, founder of the Pastors for Peace organization,
called the graduation a significant and unprecedented world event.

The US graduates, as many Latin American youths who have become doctors
at the Cuban school, plan to return to their country and provide health 
care in poor neighbourhoods and communities.

"Cuba offered us full scholarships to study medicine here. In exchange,
we commit ourselves to go back to our communities to provide health
care to underserved people," said Carmen Landau, 30, of Oakland,
California as quoted by Reuters news agency.

"We have studied medicine with a humanitarian approach," said Kenya 
Bingham, 29, of Alameda, California. She added that "health care is not 
seen as a business in Cuba. When you are sick, they are not going to 
try to charge you or turn you away if you don't have insurance," she 
said.

"The future is ours, The Americas and Africa are waiting for us," said
Chilean graduate Katia Millarai Rivera as she spoke on behalf of all 
foreign graduates.

The ceremony, held at Havanabs Karl Marx Theater, was also attended by 
Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage and other Cuban Communist Party 
Politburo members including Jose Ramon Machado Ventura and Concepcion 
Campa.
       
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