Based on José Martí’s maxim “Homeland is humanity”, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro made internationalist solidarity an essential pillar of Cuba’s foreign policy.
Today, August 31 is International Solidarity Day, commemorating the founding date of the Polish trade union “Solidarno “7;ć”. This commemoration aims to promote and strengthen the ideals of solidarity as fundamental values for relations between nations, peoples and individuals.
Cuba, under Fidel Castro’s thoughts, has a long history and tradition of international solidarity with other countries in different sectors, but it is in the health sector that the true internationalist character of Cubans is shown.
Since 1960 they began sending health workers to help other countries. Since then, Cuban doctors and health professionals have provided services in 164 countries. In addition, they help strengthen local health systems by providing services in remote areas and trained doctors.
Based on this long experience, in 2005 Cuba decided to create the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade to respond to natural disasters and severe epidemics around the world. Since then, this brigade of more than 7,000 doctors, nurses and other health specialists has served in more than 20 countries.
Fidel and the medical solidarity
Moreover, Cuba has trained several generations of physicians from around the world, health professionals from 121 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, particularly through the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) founded in 1999. In addition to the doctors who studied at ELAM in Cuba, Havana contributes to the training of medical students in 10 countries around the world.
Operation Miracle is emblematic of Havana’s solidarity policy. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are currently some 285 million visually impaired people in the world, including 39 million blind people and 246 million with reduced visual acuity.
Faced with this situation, Fidel Castro decided to launch in July 2004 a vast continental humanitarian campaign under the name of Operation Miracle with the help of Venezuela. It consists of free surgery for poor Latin Americans suffering from cataracts and other eye diseases, but who are unable to finance an operation that costs between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars, depending on the country.
