Twenty of the ELMA in Cuba, the fruits of another dream of Fidel
La Habana (Cuba Debate) The 20 years of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), were celebrated in a scene full of memories, on the same esplanade by the sea, where the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro inaugurated it.
Present there were the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, Roberto Morales Ojeda, vice president of the Council of Ministers, José Ángel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health, and Dr. Antonio López Gutiérrez, Rector of the ELAM, among other personalities, students and teachers of the school.
For those of us who had the privilege of being there two decades ago, it was an afternoon full of evocations, as if we were returning to those days when Fidel tried to find a way to help countries in Central America and the Caribbean that had been ravaged by two fierce hurricanes in 1998. Then we saw the growth of what was the Granma Naval School of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, a Center for Higher Studies to train doctors.
In February 1999, the first students who started a seven-month introductory course were admitted and then began the first course of the medical career with an enrollment of 1,929 students from 19 countries including about 180 in the United States.
On November 15, 1999, in the IX Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Havana, the ELAM was founded.
The news of the existence of the ELAM was spread throughout the world and more and more young people were requesting - and still applying - to apply for a scholarship in Cuba. The prestige of Cuban doctors meant a challenge for all those interested in studying medicine.
As a result of that idea of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, almost 30,000 young people from more than 100 countries became doctors who now watch over the health of their countrymen in their home regions.
It is moving to visit any of the countries where ELAM graduates work and see them delivered to the apostolate of medicine, observe how they stay together, how they support Cuban doctors, and above all, they have an immense love and appreciation for Cuba and His town.
The purpose of this school was to train doctors dedicated to primary health care, with the requirement of a high scientific and humanistic level, where ethics and solidarity are essential.
ELAM freely prepares humble youth from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the United States, among other towns, who, after a period of six years, return to their communities to contribute to the sustainability of their health systems and those who they want to make the specialty in Cuba.
This afternoon there were songs, typical dances, fusion of countries, cultures, beliefs and religions, united to ensure that the privilege to health and life is not the right of a few but of all.
Dr. Patrick Delly, President of the International Medical Society of Graduates of the ELAM and Director of Hygiene and Epidemiology of Haiti, expressed in this act of commemoration, the great honor that he conferred to represent the graduates of the ELAM, a school he described as “sowing of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro 20 years ago.”
And he added - referring to the soldiers in white coats - that the fruit of that seed of doctors of science and conscience cannot be destroyed by any of the adversities.
During the event, the Latin American School of Medicine granted the Honoris Causa Title to Dr. José Miyar Barruecos, affectionately known as Chomy, who optimistically and unconditionally advised this project since its inception.
About Miyar Barruecos it was said: “Professor of several generations, he has contributed to ELAM celebrating its 20th anniversary with relevant results in the training of health professionals for Latin America and the world. He is an impeccable revolutionary, loyal man, defender of science and the noble causes of the world.”
The Central of Workers of Cuba presented to the ELAM the 80th Anniversary Commemorative Seal of the CTC, and a special recognition was made to Dr. Antonio López Gutiérrez, rector of the School.
The seed that was deposited 20 years ago in this medical school, today is distributed almost everywhere. Having lived with the Cuban doctors in different missions, it makes the admiration and respect for these men and women that put their lives at risk to bring health and well-being to the most dispossessed in this world.