Another 100 Salvadorians to Study Medicine in Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 17 . Another 100 Salvadorian youngsters from low-income families are getting ready to travel to Cuba to begin studies at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).

The scholarship program boosted by Cuba for El Salvador and other Central American nations started at the end of the 1990s when this region faced the damage by Hurricane Mitch, and the lack of socially committed doctors became evident.

Nowadays, there are over 500 Salvadorians studying Medicine in Cuban universities, where in August 2005 the first 120 youngsters from that country graduated as general practitioners.

Prensa Latina news agency reported that this new group thanked Cuba's government and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, for this opportunity to become doctors in order to be able to help their people.

Jorge Luis Rivas, from the Chalchuapa municipality, in the Santa Ana department, said: "We go with the commitment that our return will bring well-being and health to our people, with no exclusions"

At the farewell ceremony, the youngsters paid homage to Schafik Handal, historic leader of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) who died in 2006, and who boosted the ELAM project to improve the health of his people.

Juana Concepción Vásquez, grandmother of one girl with the scholarship, reminded them that lots of people died from lack of medicines, from not being able to pay for a consultation or an operation.

(Otros 100 salvadoreños estudiarán medicina en Cuba)