LATIN AMERICAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, Bringing health to the world

An initiative of Cuban President Fidel Castro, the Latin American School of Medicine is bearing fruit in terms of health for all • With more than 14,000 students in Cuba and 3,000 graduates, the institution is becoming a contribution to human development in world terms

BY SUNDRED SUZARTE MEDINA—Granma International staff writer—PHOTO: Otmaro RODRIGUEZ

SOME 20 kilometers west of Havana, young people are sowing the seed of hope for a future of sturdy children and lively older adults, conspiring against the reigning dehumanization, with their white coats the banner of a better world. The Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) is an institution that, in less than 10 years of existence, embodies that proposition and is showing the world what can be done when a genuine will exists.

Inaugurated in 1999 via an initiative of President Fidel Castro, this university has the fundamental objective of graduating young people – mostly from Latin America – in Medicine. Currently ELAM has 4,000-plus students on its campus and more than 10,000 distributed in other institutes throughout the island. The project involves 28 countries and has graduated 3,204 doctors, 530 of them specializing in General Medicine in the country. The ELAM also has 63 classrooms, 16 amphitheaters, 36 teaching labs and a roster of 508 professors.

Graduates still in Cuba have a doctors’ office for consultations and some of them have been motivated to study for a second specialty, either on the island or in Latin America. Recently graduated students have the option of doing a Masters Degree in Cuba by working in teaching hospitals, and they are guaranteed an account in convertible pesos (CUC), plus a salary in Cuban currency for their personal expenses.

Speaking to Granma International, Dr. Juan D. Carrizo Estévez, rector of ELAM, stated that the school "is a great achievement that speaks of a reality where Fidel’s dream of creating an institution to train doctors coming from various Latin American countries and from elsewhere has been made a reality."