On the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the Cuban International Medical Collaboration, the head of Health of the island praised the beautiful pages of love and solidarity written by the talented and consecrated specialists.
In turn, Dr. Michael Cabrera, director of the Central Medical Collaboration Unit, pointed out that the date calls for reflection on the legacy of its founder and greatest inspiration, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.
Cabrera recalled that on May 23, 1963, a plane transported 29 doctors, four stomatologists, 14 nurses and seven Cuban Health technicians to Algeria, to permanently provide services to that town.
This began a new form of solidarity and internationalism that would astonish the planet, he said.
Saving lives for Cuba and the world was the premise of Cuban Health professionals in all these decades, he stated.
The official said that currently 22,861 Cuban Health specialists provide services in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
With commendable results in 54 countries, he said, 9,049 doctors work, of which 64 percent are women.
Cuban aid workers have provided service to the most dispossessed populations; consulted more than two thousand 255 million people; performed more than 16 million surgical interventions and more than five million births, he said.
This constitutes a source of pride and satisfaction for the Cuban people, which is where the valuable and qualified workers emerge, genuine protagonists of this history, as a supreme expression of Martí’s thought that Homeland is Humanity, Cabrera said.
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