AUDIO: Pastors For Peace Promotes Free Med School In Cuba

OAKLAND, Mar 24 – Pastors For Peace/IFCO, International Committee For the Freedom Of the Cuban Five, and Bay Area Cuban Sister Cities held a conference at Laney College to promote 500 full scholarships at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba, offered by the Cuban government. The scholarships include tuition, room, and board; IFCO is shepherding prospective students through the application process.

At least a hundred students showed up, packing the modest conference room. Speakers described the history of the Latin American School of Medicine, the scholarship program, facilities, and curriculum. They said that Cuba has sent teams of doctors to disaster-stricken areas all over the world, but the US government (which refused to let them in after Hurricane Katrina) doesn’t want people to know of Cuba’s success in health care because it’s afraid that they will realize that there’s an alternative to the high-tech, capital-intensive Western model.

Calling inadequate health care in the US a “burning criminal problem,” Rev. Walker described the Cuban model based on deep commitment to people’s health where each community has a clinic with a resident doctor and assistant who know the people and will visit them if they don’t come in.

The US embargo of Cuba forced health care workers there to develop local alternatives to Western remedies, such as boiling tree bark to make cough syrup and building portable brain scanners out of PCs hooked up to electrodes held in place by a “shower cap.” They also use a lot of acupuncture. The model integrates what Western schools see as the separate areas of public health, preventive medicine, and medical treatment.

For applications or general information contact:

Interreligious Foundation For Community Organization
418 West 154th St.
New York, NY 10031
Tel: 212.926.5757
Fax: 212.926.5842
Web: http://www.ifconews.org
Email: ifco [at] igc.org

Also involved in the conference:

Casa Cuba Resource Center
6501 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland Ca 94609
Tel: 510.658-3984
Email: casacuba [at] california.com
http://www.cubaresource.org

Int’l Cmte For the Freedom of the Cuban Five (US rep: Alicia Jrapko)
ajrapko [at] yahoo.com
510-219-0092