[HCCN] fw: International Team of Cuban-Trained Doctors in Haiti

[Judith Robbins]

[for more on how U.S. students receive medical education at ELAM, see  
www.ifconews.org    --- J.R.]










For following release:
Reinforcements: International Team of Cuban-Trained Doctors Arrives  
in Haiti

      ELAM grads from Mali on their way to Haiti.
February 11, 2010 – An international team of some 50 doctors trained  
at Havana's Latin American Medical School (ELAM) has arrived in Port- 
au-Prince to join Cuba's medical relief contingent in post-quake  
Haiti. Coming from a dozen countries, they are the first wave of ELAM  
graduates expected to number over 200 from 24 countries in the next  
week.
They will join the 1,147-strong Cuban-led International Henry Reeve  
Emergency Medical Contingent, already comprised of 736 Cubans plus  
402 ELAM graduates from Haiti, 7 from the USA and 2 from Nicaragua— 
together the largest medical relief effort in Haiti.
Heading the international team is Dr. Luther Castillo, a Garifuna  
physician from Honduras, who was in ELAM’s first graduating class in  
2005. “When Hurricane Mitch hit my country in 1998, the Cuban  
doctors were right there with us, among the poorest of the poor,” he  
told MEDICC. “They taught us never to abandon anybody, and they’re  
the reason I’m a doctor today.  Now ELAM has given all of us the  
chance to pass on that solidarity.”

       Dr Castillo and Minister Balaguer.

       Dr Betanco: "as long as necessary".
Dr. José Ramón Balaguer, Cuban Minister of Public Health, speaking  
at the team’s sendoff last night, emphasized the long-term  
responsibility of the young physicians and their Cuban partners to  
“help build a public health system that meets the needs of all the  
Haitian people”.
Gabriel Jacques, a 1st-year Haitian medical student at ELAM, told the  
departing graduates of his school that “even in the hell that my  
country has become, you will find people like you who believe in the  
future, and who are willing to dream and rebuild.”
ELAM Grads: Activating the Network
Since the first class of 2005, ELAM has graduated 7,290 physicians  
from the Americas, Africa, the Mideast, Asia and Oceania. The  
graduates began organizing former classmates immediately following  
the earthquake, sending out thousands of emails, and recruiting  
hundreds willing to serve in Haiti. From all over Latin America they  
have come; from the Caribbean and the USA; and a few from as far away  
as Mali.  Dr. Bechri Ahmed Ali hails from the Saharawi Arab  
Democratic Republic: “But Haiti is where I belong right now,” he  
told MEDICC.
"This isn't an adventure. This is a commitment,” said Dr Wilberth  
Barral, a Bolivian ELAM graduate preparing to depart for Haiti. "My  
classmates are Haitian. Some lost their whole families, fathers,  
siblings, their homes. They need our help."
None of the dozens of ELAM-trained doctors interviewed expressed  
anxiety about the open-ended nature of their assignment. On the  
contrary, said Dr María Esther Betanco from Nicaragua, "we'll stay as  
long as necessary, unconditionally."  This is no small effort for  
many of these young doctors who themselves come from low-income  
families, and who will depend on networks back home to cover their  
absence.
Disaster Medicine Training
In preparation for departure, the ELAM graduates attended a week-long  
disaster course organized by the Latin American Center for Disaster  
Medicine (CLAMED), including modules on epidemiology, disease  
prevention, and vector control. They also had sessions in Haitian  
geography, culture, and history. In addition to a battery of  
vaccinations and basic materials every Henry Reeve volunteer receives  
before departure, each doctor also packed MEDICC’s trilingual  
Spanish-Creole-French Health for All Glossary of 4000+ essential  
health care terms.
To date, the Cuban-led Henry Reeve Contingent in Haiti has treated  
over 65,000 victims and performed more than 3,600 surgical  
interventions in field hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and other  
health installations throughout Haiti.
Countries Represented in the Henry Reeve International Emergency  
Medical Contingent
This is also the first time the Henry Reeve Contingent--which has  
provided health services in post-disaster Guatemala, Pakistan,  
Indonesia and elsewhere--will formally include ELAM graduates. The  
Contingent, named after a Brooklyn-born hero of Cuba's independence  
war against Spain, was created after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf  
Coast of the USA.
In addition to Cuban and Cuban-trained Haitian physicians, the  
Contingent in Haiti includes over 200 ELAM graduates from the  
following countries, expected to continue arriving in Haiti over the  
next five days:
       Argentina
       Belize
       Bolivia
       Brazil
       Chile
       Colombia
       Dominica
       Dominican Republic
       Ecuador
       El Salvador
       Guatemala
       Honduras Lebanon
       Mali
       Mexico
       Nicaragua
       Panama
       Paraguay
       Peru
       Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic
       St. Lucia
       United States
       Uruguay
       Venezuela

________________________________________________________________________ 
___ _____________________________________
Gail Reed
International Director, MEDICC
Executive Editor, MEDICC Review
me... at infomed.sld.cu
www.medicc.org  www.saludthefilm.net

Donate to Cuban-trained Haitian doctors on the front lines of Haiti  
relief: www.medicc.org

Follow the work of the Cuban-Haitian medical teams on Twitter at:  
http://twitter.com/mediccglobal

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