Subject: Second Round of US Students Depart for Cuba to Study Medicine
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 20:05:27 -0400
From: ifco <ifco@igc.org>
To: (Recipient
list suppressed)
For Immediate Release Contact: 212/926-5757, 646/319-5902
or 646/319-5901
August 16, 2001
On Monday, August 20 twenty-eight more youth from eight US
states will depart for Havana, Cuba to begin a six-year medical school program.
The 28 students will join the 11 others who have already begun their medical studies
for a total of 39 US students who have now taken advantage of Fidel Castro’s
offer to provide 500 free medical school scholarships for US students. In
addition to the US students, there are currently 5,000 students from 23
countries throughout Central and South America, the Caribbean and Africa
studying medicine at Cuba’s Latin American School of Medical Sciences under a
similar offer.
The offer to train US students was first extended by Cuban
President Fidel Castro during a June 2000 Congressional Black Caucus delegation
organized by the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization
(IFCO)/Pastors for Peace. The offer was reiterated during a speech President
Castro made at New York’s Riverside Church in September 2001 while in the US
attending the UN Millennium Summit.
“We are prepared to grant a number of scholarships to poor
youth who cannot afford to pay the $200,000 it costs to get a medical degree in
the US,” said President Castro.
Under the offer students will receive free tuition, room,
board and textbooks all free of charge. In exchange each student has committed
to practice medicine in an underserved community upon their return to the United
States.
“I feel privileged to have been chosen to be a part of
this program,” said Toussaint Reynolds, 23, an Emergency Medical Technician
from Massapequa, NY. “Working with doctors, I feel that many of them lack the
compassion that I think is important to bring to medical care. Studying medicine
in Cuba will reinforce my convictions about the importance of patient care.”
Serving as the primary recruitment center for the
scholarship program is a natural link with IFCO’s history according to IFCO
Executive Director Rev. Lucius Walker. “IFCO is a 34-year-old ecumenical agency
committed to working with poor communities to train and empower residents to
improve the lives of the people in their communities. This medical school
scholarship program is aimed at educating and serving residents of those same
poor communities that IFCO has worked with over he past three decades.”
The third round of students are scheduled to depart for the
Caribbean island next February.
IFCO/Pastors for Peace
402 W 145th Street, New York City, NY 10031
212-926-5757; fax: 212-926-5842; email: ifco@igc.org;