Kingstown, July 31, 2024 - The farewell ceremony for Vincentian students, recipients of medical and mechanical engineering scholarships, awarded by the Cuban state, was the setting for a warm tribute of remembrance to Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro.
The event, held at the headquarters of the Cuban Embassy, was attended by the Honourable St. Claire Prince, Minister of Health, Welfare and the Environment and representatives of the Service Commission of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines who, together with the students, their families and the Cuban diplomatic staff, highlighted the role of Fidel in the creation of the Program for the Training of Doctors from Third Countries in Cuba, the Integral Health Program and the founding of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).
Minister St. Claire Prince welcomed the decisive support of Cuba during the almost 45 years of independence of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, in the training of medical personnel and in support for the health system of the small Eastern Caribbean nation.
He pointed out that, only in medicine, Cuba has graduated more than 200 Vincentians, a significant number for a small country of just 109 thousand inhabitants. He also thanked Cuba for its firm willingness to continue helping sister nations like Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, even in the midst of complex circumstances. He concluded that students would have the privilege of studying in one of the world’s leading medical powers, where not only good doctors and specialists are trained, but also excellent human beings.
In concluding the activity, the Cuban ambassador, Carlos Ernesto Rodríguez Etcheverry, said that the farewell of the Vincentian students this year takes place a few days before the 98th anniversary of the birth of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro and in the year of the 26th anniversary of the founding of ELAM, which is also a creation of Fidel.
The diplomat noted that ELAM has trained more than 30,000 young people from 141 nationalities, who have not only acquired the knowledge required by their professional profiles, but a cultural and integral preparation for life that marks its future, as the possibility of living together and sharing with those who arrive in Cuba from the most diverse regions of the world, is unique, and it shapes them, above all, as better human beings, with more weapons to understand and appreciate the world.
The head of mission also meant what it means, even in the midst of Cuba’s complex economic conditions, to maintain a project like this and referred to generosity, altruism and historical vision of Fidel, who conceived ELAM as a modest contribution to the unity and integration of peoples (EmbaCuba San Vicente y las Granadinas/Cubaminrex).
