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The “Window” turns 25 years old. And the messages came from multiple places around the world. The first was that of Dr. Michel Cabrera Lasa, director of the Central Medical Cooperation Unit.
The first broadcast of the program was on May 8, 1999. The idea came from Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, who during the UPEC Congress expressed the possibility of journalists accompanying the doctors to the missions and being able to tell the stories they experienced. .
Central America had been devastated by powerful Hurricane Mitch, which killed approximately 7,000 people in Honduras and nearly 4,000 in Nicaragua. The hurricane caused food and water shortages, dangerous sanitary conditions, and outbreaks of malaria, dengue, cholera, hepatitis, and respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases throughout the region.
Faced with the bleak panorama described above, the leader of the Cuban Revolution offered the willingness to immediately and free of charge send a contingent of 2,000 doctors to work in Honduras and the rest of the countries affected by Hurricane Mitch.
Cuba sent hundreds of doctors and nurses to Honduras and Guatemala, divided into several brigades. His fame ran alongside his professionalism and respect. Her stories and legends were in the sound of Rebelde, which for a decade transmitted her humanitarian actions and work.
These were not the times of the Internet and new technologies like the ones we have today. The Radio, through the telephone line, achieved the bridge between those who were carrying out an internationalist mission and their families in Cuba. In the air were their stories and tales in their voices and reality became, more than private, collective.
We hear parents cry because of the distance, siblings send warm greetings and vehement advice. The family found a space on the radio to talk to each other. I present to you Dr. Efren Acosta Damas, head of the Cuban mission in Haiti. He tells his experience.
Ventana Rebelde worked with the spectacular leadership of Carlos Rafael Jiménez, a Radio man, who with his voice described in each broadcast Cuban sunsets and realities that they wanted to know about. He counted them and called family members so that everyone could have the “great social conversation.”
Those descriptions were appreciated by many. This is what Dr. Jorge Delgado Bustillo, head of the medical brigade in South Africa, several health missions and a faithful listener of Ventana Rebelde, tells us.
The new coronavirus SARS CoV-2 pandemic launched a global SOS. Once again, Cuba extended its hand of solidarity and its humanistic medicine demonstrated to the world its altruism and its immense vocation for solidarity.
Health professionals were part of the Cuban contingent that marched in the battle against the new coronavirus. Countries such as Italy, Spain, Suriname, Jamaica, Guyana, Haiti, Andorra and Venezuela received solidarity aid from Cuba. Cuban medicine arrived for the first time, for example, to the Turks and Caicos Islands, very close here in the Caribbean. La Ventana, once again, airs and through the website the voices and images of our “health heroes” from our own sound construction.
Moving stories of doctors, nurses, technicians, teachers and specialists from all branches are in our sound archives and are part of the treasure that the Rebel Window has kept for more than two decades.
Today, 22,616 Cuban collaborators provide their services in 54 nations. In 61 years of medical collaboration, more than 600,000 health professionals have provided their services in multiple locations around the world.
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