(11 Nov 1999) Spanish/Nat
The heads of state visiting Cuba for the 9th Ibero-American Summit, will be a given a tour of one president Fidel Castro's most prized institutions, the International Latin American Medical School.
There are more than 1-thousand students from Latin America who are studying medicine under full scholarships from Cuba's communist government.
Proposed by President Fidel Castro after Hurricane Mitch's devastation, the school opened in March this year.
It provides six years of free medical training, including room and board, to students chosen by their own
governments.
During the 1980s, Cuba welcomed hundreds of Central Americans studying the art of revolutionary warfare.
With an end to the civil wars that raged across Central America, the medical school could be a way for Cuba to win friends as it shakes loose from decades of political and economic isolation.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"By chance, I heard of the possibility of living and studying here, and I decided to come here on account of the human character of the medicine here in Cuba - which has a great deal of international prestige. Also, the schooling here is free."
SUPER CAPTION: Maria Eugenia Lora, Columbian Student
No classes in political ideology are included among the studies of biology, chemistry and anatomy, but the physicians on the faculty do hope to instill in the students Cuba's focus on health care as a citizen's sacred right and a doctor's social responsibility.
Cuba for decades has sent doctors and other medical workers to help in needy countries, and late last year 2-thousand went to remote regions of Central America hit hard by Hurricane Mitch.
Coming from a country where virtually every residential block and every workplace is assigned a full-time physician, many of the doctors were stunned by the lack of health workers and facilities in isolated areas of
Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"The school was founded on the principle that it would be for the poorest and most humble students from the most inaccessible regions. The majority of our students, above all those from Central America, are from the humblest, most remote regions; where medical care is most needed."
SUPER CAPTION: Mercedes Cairo, Vice-Rector
With the new medical school, the Cuban government hopes to train 5-thousand doctors from throughout Latin America, but especially from Central America, over the next decade.
The students live in dormitories, get three meals a day and attend classes at the campus, the former Granma Naval Academy on the western outskirts of Havana.
The government also pays airfare for many students from Honduras, which was hit especially hard by Hurricane Mitch.
Cuba charges students without scholarships an annual tuition of 7-thousand 500 U-S Dollars to attend its other medical schools.
For 24-year-old Leonardo Arias from the Dominican Republic, the school represents the opportunity to realize a life long dream.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"My greatest dream is to become a doctor, a general practitioner, and for that reason I'm here. I get up everyday thinking about it, and that one day, I will get out and the "Comandante" will present me with my degree, which will say: doctor, general practitioner, and I will run to my country to begin my practice."
SUPER CAPTION: Leonardo Arias, student
President Fidel Castro is committed to providing medical training at a level equal to, if not surpassing, that of the developed world.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
SUPER CAPTION: Fidel Castro, Cuban President
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