Castro pledges 1 000 doctors
2010-02-08 23:05
Special Report
There is not much left of the city's numerous churches, beside crosses and the occasional surviving stained glass window...
Havana - Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced on Monday that over 1 000 Latin American doctors, many of them trained on the communist island, would open "dozens" of field hospitals in quake-ravaged Haiti.
The doctors and students in the last year of their medical studies will serve at medical care centres provided by Venezuela, he said.
"Venezuela has already provided tents, medical equipment, medicine and food, while the Haitian government has offered its full co-operation and support in this effort," Castro wrote in an article published in local newspapers.
"From all corners of the continent, we have heard from many colleagues who studied at Elam (Latin American School of Medicine, founded in Cuba a decade ago) who wish to collaborate with them in this noble task.”
Those volunteering will come from Haiti, the neighbouring Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and other countries from the Americas, Castro said.
Cuba is one among many countries providing aid to Haiti, which is still reeling from a January 12 earthquake that killed more than 212 000 people and left more than a million homeless.
Havana has staffed five field hospitals in Haiti, and provided some 1 020 medical and paramedical staff.
The ailing revolutionary icon stepped down as president in 2006, turning over the government to his brother Raul Castro, 78.
- SAPA
