Cuban Doctor to Speak on Cuba's Humanitarian Medical Mission in Haiti

Cuban Doctor to Speak on Cuba's Humanitarian Medical Mission
http://www.cpcml.ca/Calendar/110309-CubaAlvarezTour.htm

- Press Release, Canadian Network on Cuba -


Members of Cuba's medical brigade to Haiti in action, January 2010.


From March 19 to April 3, 2001 Dr. William Álvarez Consuegra, a member of Cuba's medical internationalist mission to Haiti, will speak in a dozen Canadian cities on Cuba's Humanitarian Medical Mission in Haiti.

Dr. Álvarez will raise awareness of Cuba's extensive and unprecedented solidarity with the peoples of the world which illustrates what can be achieved when self-serving interests do not direct the aid provided.

Dr. Álvarez himself has extensive experience in Cuba's many medical internationalist missions across the globe. In 2010, he was a director of campaign hospitals for the Cuban medical mission in Haiti. From 2006-2008 he served in the medical mission to Honduras sent in response to Hurricane Mitch. In 2005 he participated in the mission to Pakistan dispatched in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in that country.

Dr. Álvarez is an Orthopedic specialist and currently works and teaches at the Dr. Ernesto Guevara General Educational Hospital in the city of Las Tunas, and has been recognized for his outstanding work in the medical field, receiving several awards and recognitions:

- 2010: Best Director, campaign hospitals for the Cuban medical mission in Haiti;
- 2006: Outstanding Doctor, Havana Forum of Sciences and Technology;
- 2005 & 2004: Outstanding Doctor in the area of investigations and services, Dr. Ernesto Guevara General Educational Hospital;
- 2003: Best Medical Professor, Dr. Ernesto Guevara General Educational Hospital.

Dr. Álvarez is 39 years old and speaks Spanish and English.

The tour is organized by the Canadian Network On Cuba (CNC). Keith Ellis, the CNC's Cuba For Haiti Campaign coordinator and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, states the work of Cuban doctors in Haiti is guided by the profoundest sentiments for humanity. "Their work is based on the motivation to save and develop the country, and to serve other people. In fact, Cuba is the only country that has given substantial and altruistic assistance to Haiti," he notes.

CNC spokesperson Isaac Saney says Dr. Álvarez's work and service illustrate Cuba's collective commitment to building and strengthening genuine ties of friendship and solidarity among the world's peoples, of which Cuba's medical mission in Haiti is emblematic.

"Cuba's medical internationalist mission in Haiti is a profound challenge to those who argue that relations among the world's nations and peoples are -- and can only be -- determined by self-interest, the pursuit of power and wealth," Saney points out. "Cuba provides the example that it is possible to build relations based on genuine solidarity and social love: demonstrating the alternatives which permit people to realize their deepest aspirations, and that another better world is possible," he said.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Backgrounder: Cuba in Haiti

At the time of the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, 402 Cuban internationalists, 302 of them medical personnel, had already been helping the Haitian people. "The Cubans did not wait for the earth tremor to offer their help. They were already working along with us long before," Haitian President René Préval said.

Cuba's cooperation with Haiti began in 1998, after Hurricane George hit Haiti. It has expanded its assistance since the January 2010 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people, wounded more than 300,000 and displaced more than 500,000.

Since the earthquake, Cuban cooperation has grown to 1,304 persons, with 679 Cubans, and 625 graduates and students from 26 other countries, trained and educated free of cost at Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine. The Haitian President declared that the people of Haiti view the Cuban physicians as extremely important, "second only to God."

The Cuban medical mission has treated more than 300,000 patients, performing more than 8,000 surgeries. Cuban assistance encompasses more than just the provision of immediate medical attention. It is now also focused on strengthening and rebuilding the Haitian health care system. Toward those ends, the Cuban medical and paramedical internationalists work in 56 hospitals and healthcare centres, and have installed and equipped 30 rooms, in which more than 85,000 patients have been treated.
For information contact: isaney@hotmail.com; cell: 902-449-4967

To contact the Canadian Network on Cuba: www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca

Ottawa
Wednesday, March 23 -- 7:00 pm
Rm 203, Haitian Community Centre of Ottawa, 876 Montreal Rd.
Organized by: Ottawa-Cuba Connections, Ottawa-Cuba Connections, Canadian Network on Cuba, Association d'amitié Outaouais Cuba , AKASAN - Ayisyen ki ap soutni Ayisyen Nètalkole, Union des Haitiens, d'Ottawa-Gatineau, Ottawa Haiti Solidarity Committee, ...and others