From Cooperation to Capacitation: Cuban Medical Internationalism in the South Pacific

Notes

1. In a statement on 11 June 2012 by Ambassador Oscar León González during the United Nations Plenary Meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS in New York, he highlighted that there are ‘currently 38,868 healthcare professionals, including 15,407 medical doctors, who are rendering their services in 66 nations. Over 14,000 students from 122 countries have graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)’ (León González 2012).

2. For Haiti, where Havana has a large medical programme, this meant that 75 per cent of the students trained in Cuba were drawn from communities and areas previously underserved by medical personnel ‘including a broad representation of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples’ (Bull World Health Organ 2010: 325).

3. More details, including videoed interviews of Timorese medical students, can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLmUIGdYjE&feature=plcp, as well as other students from the South Pacific at ELAM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhMAncnEDQQ&feature=plcp) can be found at Tim Anderson's YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/timand2037/videos?sort=dd&flow=grid&view=0&page=2).