CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Cuba’s Assistance to Haiti Continues a Year after the Earthquake.

CUBA, January 13th, 2011.- Cuba is one of the few countries that have kept its commitment to help Haiti one year after an earthquake devastated the Haitian capital on January 12, 2010, leaving more than 300,000 people dead and thousands wounded.

Speaking on Wednesday during the Round Table television program, the representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Cuba, Jose Ortiz Bru, expressed his concern over the lack of commitment of many nations.

He noted that it is necessary to demand the leaders of these countries to take forward humanitarian actions in favor of Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the planet.

Ortiz highlighted the political will of the Cuban government and recognized the work of the Cuban doctors before and after Haiti’s misfortunes last year.

The head of the Telesur Cuban correspondent’s office in Haiti, Fabiola Lopez, reported via satellite about the activities on the occasion of the first anniversary of the earthquake, and said that everything is still the same there, with lots of rubbles on the streets, and very difficult conditions in the shelters.

The Round Table journalist, Oliver Zamora, believes that, in addition to that natural disaster and the current cholera epidemic; Haiti is facing a political crisis after the elections held last November, which generated violence in the midst of such a chaotic situation.

Journalist Noel Otaño explained that political parties have not reached an agreement, while the cholera epidemic has already taken more than 4,000 lives.

The director of the Central Cooperation Unit from the Cuban Public Health Ministry, Yiliam Jimenez, mentioned that Cuba has offered medical aid to Haiti since 1998, and recalled that, since then, this nation has been hit by nine natural disasters like hurricanes, tropical storms, and the 2010 earthquake.

She noted that such permanent cooperation allowed physicians and nurses to assist the victims right away, which demanded a strong surgical activity on their part.

The head of the Cuban Cooperation Brigade in Haiti, Lorenzo Somarraba, stated that there are currently 1,300 Cuban health workers in that nation including 312 doctors, out of which 247 graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) who come from 20 different countries.

Somarraba underlined that the cholera lethality rate in Haiti is 2.07 per cent, whereas for the sick people assisted by the Cuban Medical Brigade is 0.48 per cent. (Cubaminrex - ACN)

 

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