BACKGROUND
During a Congressional Black Caucus delegation to Cuba in June 2000, a Congressperson from the
Mississippi Delta remarked to President Fidel Castro that there are large areas in his district which do not have a single physician. President Castro responded with an offer of full scholarships for young adults from Mississippi to study medicine in Cuba. This generous offer was then extended to young adults of color from low income, working class and underserved areas throughout the US.
In his September 2001 speech at the Riverside
Church in New York, President Castro said, “We are prepared to grant a number of scholarships to poor youth who cannot afford to pay the $400,000 it costs to get a medical degree in the United States.”
The intent of this scholarship offer is to help the US fill the dramatic need for health care in some of its
most medically neglected and impoverished
regions. These full scholarships for young adults to
study medicine in Cuba cover tuition, dormitory
room and board, uniforms and
textbooks in Spanish.
The only condition of Cuba’s scholarship offer is that graduates of the program return to the US to
practice medicine in underserved communities.
IFCO views this scholarship offer as a historically
unprecedented opportunity. Accordingly, IFCO
seeks to make this opportunity available to its
members and colleagues. We began recruitment
for the scholarship program in 2001.
“What we want from the Latin American School of Medicine is for students from our sister nations to become imbued with the same doctrine in which our own doctors are educated, with that total devotion to their noble future profession– for the doctor is like a shepherd, a priest, a missionary, a crusader for the people’s health and physical and mental well-being.”
-Former Cuban President Fidel Castro
HEALTH CARE IN CUBA
IS UNIVERSAL AND FREE
Cuba continues to make health care a priority for its citizens, despite the effects of the suffocating US blockade. Cuba’s public health care system is world-renowned. It maintains one physician for every 168 people in the country, and produces 2000 new physicians every year. The infant mortality rate is less than that of the United States. The Cuban Ministry of Health maintains a clinic, with at least one doctor and one nurse in residence, for every 120 families in Cuba.
CUBA PROVIDES HEALTH CARE FOR THE WORLD
Medical workers are among Cuba’s most important commodity. Here are some examples:
Cuba sends thousands of physicians and medical professionals to serve in the poorest areas of Latin America and Africa
Cuba organized a health care task force to address the AIDS epidemic in Africa and built two medical schools there.
Cuba has treated more than 18,000 victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster
Cuba has trained hundreds of doctors from African and Latin American nations, to return and practice medicine in their
respective countries. And now the US is among those nations.
Cuba has helped to build a health infrastructure in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
FACILITIES
The Latin American School of Medicine is located on the site of a former naval academy. The campus has 28 buildings, which house 80 classrooms, 37 laboratories, five amphitheaters, dormitories, an infirmary, and other facilities. The LASM currently has more than 17,000 students enrolled from 124 countries including Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
All courses at the LASM are taught in Spanish. The pre-med curriculum includes an introductory course in health sciences as well as courses in chemistry, biology, math, physics and a 12-week intensive Spanish language program. The six-year medical school program, which includes a one-year rotating internship, begins every September. Students study at the LASM campus for the first two years, attend another of Cuba’s 21 medical schools, which are connected to hospitals and policlinics. The Cuban medical training model combines theory with practice and focuses on primary care, community medicine, and hands- on internships.
The program at LASM provides intensive advising and tutoring designed to help every student succeed. Students must pass competency exams at appropriate points in their course of study. For US students this includes the United States Medical Licensing Exams (USMLE).
APPLICANT CRITERIA
US citizenship with a current passport
Proficiency in college-level sciences
with minimum of B- average, in:
One year of biology with lab
One year general chemistry with lab
One year organic chemistry with lab
One year of physics with lab
Lifetime commitment to practice medicine in poor and medically under-served communities in the US after graduation.
18-25 years-old at time of application
Persons of color and/or low income are especially encouraged to apply.
The IFCO Medical School Scholarship
Committee receives and reviews applications. However, all final decisions regarding admission are made in Cuba.
For applications
For applications
or more information contact:
Interreligious Foundation
for Community Organization
418 West 145th Street,
New York, NY 10031
tel: 212. 926.5757 fax: 212.926.5842
email: [email protected]; [email protected]
website:www.ifconews.org
IFCO was founded in 1967 to advance the struggles of oppressed people for justice and self-determination. Since then, IFCO has worked with its international church partners and a network of grassroots organizations to assist the dis-enfranchised to develop and sustain community organizations to fight injustice. This work includes education about the realities of the poor in the US and the “third world.” As part of this work, IFCO provides support for grassroots community organizing projects in urban and rural regions of the US.
Since 1992, IFCO, through our project Pastors for Peace, has worked to bring an end to the immoral and unjust US economic blockade of Cuba, Our Friendshipment Caravans educate and organize throughout the US, Mexico and Canada as well as delivering tons of humanitarian aid. We also organize construction brigades, educational delegations and other exchanges.
The Latin American
School of Medicine
MEDICAL SCHOOL
SCHOLARSHIP
PROGRAM
HAVANA, CUBA
