International Congress on Pedagogy Inaugurated in Havana

The Pedagogy 2009 International Congress was inaugurated on Monday evening at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana with
the presence of First VP Jose Ramon Machado Ventura.

In her opening address, Education Minister Ana Elsa Velazquez
highlighted Cuba’s achievements in the education sector over the past 50 years after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, in spite of the economic, financial and trade blockade imposed by the United States.

In particular, Velazquez praised the role of Cuban teachers who, inspired by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, helped Cuba become the first Latin American country free from the scourge of illiteracy in 1961.

In this respect, she also highlighted Cuba’s contribution with personnel and the “Yo si puedo” (Yes, I Can) methodology to ongoing literacy campaigns in almost 30 countries and recalled that Venezuela, in 2006, and Bolivia, in 2008, recently declared themselves free from illiteracy
with Cuba’s assistance.

Velazquez highly commended the efforts by the Cuban government in order to improve education at all levels and explained that, due to Washington’s blockade, the country has to spend almost 30% more than it would normally do in order to acquire educational means and resources.

The official stressed that Cuba also guarantees the education of children and youths with physical and mental impairments.

She added that 72% of university graduates in the field of education are currently linked to post-graduate courses.

Also present in the opening ceremony of the event were VP Esteban Lazo Hernandez and Jose Ramon Fernandez, VP of the Cuban Council of Ministers.

More than 3,000 teachers and researchers from 44 countries are in Cuba for the meeting that will end next Friday. The countries with the largest delegations attending the event are Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico.

Thus far, 14 Education ministers have confirmed their presence in the Cuban capital for the Congress. Also attending will be the General Secretaries of the Ibero-American Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Association of Ibero-American Educational
Television.

The Scientific Program of the event includes four main topics: integral formation of citizens, scientific and developing education, training of educators and education sciences.

(Evidencia Cuba logros en educación, a pesar del bloqueo)

More than Eleven Thousand Venezuelans recovered their vision in January

Some 11,700 people in Venezuela recovered their vision in January, after being operated on thanks to Operation Miracle, a project boosted by that nation and Cuba, aimed at helping people of scant economic resources to recover their sight.

The international coordinator of this program, Manuel Pacheco, told the press in Caracas that, from this figure, 10,831 were operated on by Cuban specialists working in Venezuela, while 861 were patients seen by doctors from that South American nation. Pacheco added that another 363 Venezuelans are waiting to be operated on in their country, between this week and February 1st.

He highlighted that, as well, 456 Latin Americans, coming from Honduras, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ecuador, will also be operated on.

The joint work by Cuban and Venezuelan specialists, he stressed, made it possible to operate on patients, and to begin the surgery procedures with those found during the travelling campaigns to identify potential patients, held in 2008, Prensa Latina news agency reports.

So far, more than 1,384,300 people from 33 nations, including Cubans, have been operated on under this eye program, the CubaCoopera Web site reports. From this figure, 1,212,098 are foreigners, 265,443 of whom have been operated on in Cuba. The rest underwent surgery in 57 eye centres, with 88 operating rooms equipped with high technology, donated by the archipelago to 15 nations.

In Third World countries, the main causes of blindness are cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, infectious diseases, and Vitamin A deficiency .


Recuperan la visión en enero más de 11 mil venezolanos

Make beauty people from Camagüey their city to celebrate anniversary 495

The respect of the current generations of Camagüey, beats in each of the rebuit works and in each artistic and social action that will greet to the historical center of the old provincial capital in its anniversary 495 the next one February two.

The above-mentioned stood out in the conference of offered press this Monday for the maximum authorities of the Municipal Assembly of the Popular Power, of the Historian's Office and of other entities made responsible with the organization of the Week of the Culture that will pay to the date, between the first and seven in the incoming month.

Andrés Morales Leal, president of the maximum government organ in the town head, emphasized that the celebration-already to the doors - it continues corroborating the fullness recuperator of a demarcation that experienced severe hurts in his built patrimony, during the step of the recent hurricanes.

“Not for less brilliant than the festivity of the Anniversary 490- indicated - these activities prepare consequently to the territory to welcome the means millennium of this lover's urban historical center existence and the declaration of one of their segments for the UNESCO like Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity.

The interventions of different officials, enumerated during the press Conference, the multiplicity of foreseen activities that surpass the figure of 300, which will take place in a demarcation that continues beautifying and being rejuvenated, such us its patrimonial legacy demands it. (Yolanda Ferrera Sosa).