The Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) continues its mission to contribute to meeting the growing demand for doctors oriented towards primary health care in various regions of the world, assured Dr. Yoandra Muro Valle, rector of the institution, on the 24th anniversary of its founding today.
Founded by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, whose maxim was to train doctors of «science and conscience», the ELAM trains professionals with a high academic level and promotes the solution of scientific and technical health problems, sustainable development and the elevation of universal culture in medical practice.
There are several activities these days at the ELAM headquarters in the north of the Cuban capital, especially student and faculty scientific conferences, sports, and recreational meetings, and today there will be an event that will give way to a whole day of celebrations, said the young doctor, who recognizes that it is a great challenge and an honor to lead this institution.
«There is a lot of commitment. There are already some 30,878 graduates from 122 countries since the first graduating class in 2005 and we currently have 1,932 students who are part of the ELAM project throughout Cuba, she said.
He added that today young people from 72 countries are studying at the headquarters, not only acquiring the knowledge required by their professional profiles, but also a cultural and integral preparation for life that marks their future, because of the possibility of living and sharing with those who come to Cuba from the most diverse regions of the world is unique, and above all, it forms them as better human beings, with more weapons to understand and appreciate the world.
He also emphasized what it means, even amid the country’s complex economic conditions, to maintain a school like this one because resources are scarce and a lot of time has to be spent looking for them, rationing them.
But the dedication, love, and commitment of the professors and workers in general, as well as the political and governmental will for this work of Fidel’s to continue to exist is greater because ELAM graduates go to the most dissimilar places, sometimes where a health professional has never gone before.
The ELAM, University of Excellence according to the National Accreditation Board, is currently awaiting the results of the evaluation process through which it has just passed, which could make it the first university of Cuban medical sciences to also obtain International Accreditation.
The scientific, academic, ethical, humanistic, and solidary preparation of its graduates, capable of acting according to the needs of their environment and social demands, closely linked to Cuba’s international medical cooperation, has also made its graduates and students always feel it as their own, as their own home, and today they form alumni associations and an active part of the solidarity movement with the largest of the Antilles, in the most diverse causes for a better future for all.
