Students from the entire world, inchuding the US, have been educated in Cuba [View all]

The agreement calls for them to work for a period of time when they get home among the poor with people who couldn't have otherwise afford medical treatment.

Have been posting this information here, along with some DU'ers who have personal knowledge of this arrangement, since at least as far back as 2002.

The charge of "slavery" has been thrown against the Cuban government by the radical right-wing racist Cuban "exiles" who populated South Florida and New Jersey for many years, in an attempt to create hatred of the revolution, and Cuban doctors who have been doing medicine for the right reason from the first. Cuban doctors have been loved and celebrated all over the world, often being the first to areas hit by hurricanes, earthquakes, disease, serving in the areas conventional money-motivated doctors would refuse to visit, among the poor.

Here's one reference. You can find more information by simply looking for it on the "system of tubes", the "Internets", as the late Senator/idiot from Alaska once defined it, Senator Ted Stevens, proud Republican and major grifter.

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Who are the Americans who are going to study medicine in Cuba?
Thursday, June 28, 2018

American Sarpoma Sefa-Boakye discovered that she wanted to be a doctor at the age of nine. Born in southern California, the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, she says that on her first trip to Africa for a funeral in her parents' homeland she was moved by poverty.

"I thought one way to help would be to become a doctor," Sarpoma, 39, tells BBC News Brazil.

When it came time to enter the medical school - which is offered in the United States as a graduate student - Sarpoma enrolled in American universities, but instead chose a less usual destination: the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in the capital Cuban, Havana.

According to her, what weighed in the decision was the possibility to finish the course without debts, since the Cuban government offers scholarships to the American students.

"I thought, 'Am I going to be able to afford a course in medicine in the United States, which costs between $ 200,000 and $ 300,000?'" He recalls.

Sarpoma is part of a group of 170 American doctors trained by ELAM, most of them black or Latino.

It may sound strange that citizens of a rich country like the United States participate in a program aimed at young people from low-income communities. But in American, Black and Latino colleges account for less than 6% of medical graduates.

"Most black and Latino students can not afford to pay for the medical course in the United States," says Melissa Barber, a graduate of ELAM in 2007 and the coordinator of the program that selects American students for Cuban school to IFCO (Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, in Portuguese), in New York.

In contrast, 47% of Americans trained by ELAM are black and 29% are Latino. In exchange for the free course, they undertake to work in areas lacking medical services when they return to their country.

Founded in 1999 to provide free education to young people from poor nations in Central America and the Caribbean affected by hurricanes Mitch and Georges, ELAM today brings together students from 124 countries.

The first Americans arrived in 2001 after leaders of Congressional Black Caucus, the group of black congressmen from the United States, visited the island and reported the shortage of doctors in some minority areas in their country. The Cuban leader at the time, Fidel Castro, offered scholarships to low-income Americans.

The selection of candidates is the responsibility of the IFCO, an institution that opposes the economic embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba. The final decision lies with ELAM.

"Every year, we receive 150 applications on average, of which about 30 actually enroll, and 10 are sent to Cuba," says Barber.

The course lasts six years, two more than in the United States. There is also an additional year, at the beginning of the course, dedicated to preparatory classes focusing on science and Spanish.

Despite the tension in relations between the two countries, the ELAM-trained Americans guarantee that the program leaves politics out. "Some people think that students are going to be used as a political tool on both sides, but that's not true, we're only there to study medicine," says Sarpoma.

Injections on the first day

The scholarship includes dormitory accommodation, three meals a day in the campus cafeteria, books in Spanish, a uniform and a small monthly financial aid.

Students are warned about "Spartan" accommodations, unlike what they are accustomed to in their country, and difficulties such as an occasional lack of energy and little access to the internet. But what most surprised Sarpoma was the method of education, focused on prevention and interactions with patients from the outset.

"In the United States, schools use actors to play the role of patients, not in Cuba, you learn in the clinic."

Barber highlights the community aspect of the Cuban system. "Teams formed by a doctor and a nurse are responsible for a small geographic area, they know that community. Patients go to the clinic, and the professionals also go from house to house."

In making the diagnosis, doctors are encouraged to consider biological, psychological, and social elements. "You are looking at the full picture, what is happening in the life of this patient, including social and environmental factors, that can cause these symptoms," he says.