After a long path of great efforts and hard studies, 29 young Gambians received the diploma that accredits them as doctors in Medicine, during a graduation ceremony held in Banjul, as a conclusion of the Training Program of Community Doctors started ten years ago
in the African nation.
This program, implemented on the initiative of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, was designed with the fundamental objective of covering the needs of primary medical attention in Gambian communities, starting with young lovers of this profession and willing to serve their localities of origin. The Plan of Studies was governed by the same standards and included the same basic subjects contained in the medical career taught by the Latin American School of Medical Sciences, the lead institution of the project.
The graduation ceremony was attended by representatives of different Gambian institutions, the Gambia-Cuba Friendship Association, as well as members of the Cuban medical brigade, the faculty of Cuban professors involved in the program, family members and friends of the graduates.
Speaking, both the Dean of the University of Gambia and the President of the Gambia-Cuba Friendship Association highlighted the humanist sense of Cuban collaboration and expressed their deep appreciation for the disinterested help provided by the island, thanks to which the Gambian health system has been able to guarantee medical assistance to their fellow citizens. They also underlined the importance of these new health professionals to face the lack of medical attention in the Gambian communities.
Ambassador Lázaro Herrera urged the new doctors to honor the moral commitment they acquired with their own country and to always put human lives in the foreground, without underestimating the impact their work can produce on the Gambian society.