Cuban Doctors in Timor Leste
From Cuban medical journal Medicc Review March/April 2006
Known as the ‘first independent state of the millennium,’ the island nation of East Timor will celebrate four years of independence on May 20th. Since 2004 – nearly half the young country’s life - Cuba has had a medical cooperation program with East Timor that was recently expanded to include a greater presence of Cuban doctors in-country and additional medical scholarships for East Timorese students.
East Timor pre-med students Aleito Menezes, Délio da Silva and María Geremias en route to Havana.
Providing education and training for human resources for health is a top priority in a country that was left with only 35 physicians after violent clashes in August 1999 displaced 75% of the population.[1] In response, Cuba offered over 800 full scholarships for young East Timorese to study at Havana’s Latin American Medical School. The first phase of the scholarship program is well under way, with 361 students from East Timor already matriculating in the medical school
Creating a sustainable health system where East Timorese provide health services for their own is the long-term strategy, says Dr. Francisco Medina, head of Cuba’s Comprehensive Health Program in the small island nation. There are currently 182 Cuban professionals and technicians working in East Timor under the medical cooperation project.
“We’re the first to get rid of the desk separating doctors from their patients, and many times the first to see them not just as cases, but as human beings,” Dr. Medina told MEDICC Review. This humanist approach is the philosophy underscoring medical education in Cuba and is the foundation for East Timor’s future doctors.
Known as the ‘first independent state of the millennium,’ the island nation of East Timor will celebrate four years of independence on May 20th. Since 2004 – nearly half the young country’s life - Cuba has had a medical cooperation program with East Timor that was recently expanded to include a greater presence of Cuban doctors in-country and additional medical scholarships for East Timorese students.
East Timor pre-med students Aleito Menezes, Délio da Silva and María Geremias en route to Havana.
Providing education and training for human resources for health is a top priority in a country that was left with only 35 physicians after violent clashes in August 1999 displaced 75% of the population.[1] In response, Cuba offered over 800 full scholarships for young East Timorese to study at Havana’s Latin American Medical School. The first phase of the scholarship program is well under way, with 361 students from East Timor already matriculating in the medical school
Creating a sustainable health system where East Timorese provide health services for their own is the long-term strategy, says Dr. Francisco Medina, head of Cuba’s Comprehensive Health Program in the small island nation. There are currently 182 Cuban professionals and technicians working in East Timor under the medical cooperation project.
“We’re the first to get rid of the desk separating doctors from their patients, and many times the first to see them not just as cases, but as human beings,” Dr. Medina told MEDICC Review. This humanist approach is the philosophy underscoring medical education in Cuba and is the foundation for East Timor’s future doctors.
posted by Trevor Loudon at
5/28/2006 03:52:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home