London, March 10. – As part of the seminar series organized by the International Institute for the Study of Cuba, attached to the University of Buckingham, Dr. John Kirk, Emeritus Professor of Latin American Studies at the Canada’s Dalhousie University, made an online presentation entitled Cuban Medical Internationalism: One of the World’s Best-Kept Secrets, in which he analysed the collaboration that Cuba has provided in the world in the field of health.
Cuba has been present in cases of disasters and major epidemics such as the earthquakes in Chile (1960), Pakistan (2005) and Haiti (2010), the Ebola epidemic in West Africa (2013) and more recently during the Covid-19 epidemic, in which Cuban specialists provided services in more than 40 countries, including Italy. It has also implemented programs with a high social impact such as Operation Miracle, which improved or restored the sight of more than three million patients; and has collaborated in the training of human resources with the establishment of the Latin American School of Medical Sciences in Cuba and other medical schools in different countries of the global South.
Particular emphasis was placed on free medical care provided to more than 26,000 children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident, at the time Cuba was going through the Special Period.
However, the mainstream press does not cover this news and therefore they remain largely unknown in many countries of the developed north. The academic recalled that, based on the humanist vision of the revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, Cuban collaborators have provided medical assistance in various nations for decades, which demonstrates the high-skills, sensitivity and values that characterize professionals trained in the country.
On behalf of the Cuban Embassy, the event was attended by First Secretary Michel Rodríguez.