Helping hand from Cuba

The medical aid Cuba has extended to the earthquake victims of Pakistan highlights the strides that the country has made in the fields of health care and education since the revolution.

THE international media have been full of stories about prominent Western personalities and relief agencies helping the quake-affected people in Pakistan, including actors and rock stars who fly in and out. Images of aircraft of the United States and the United Kingdom helping the Pakistan Army in ferrying relief materials to remote areas have flooded television screens.

But the fact is that many prominent Western non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have left, unable to withstand the tough conditions in the rugged mountainous areas of northern Pakistan. As the harsh winter approached, only some committed medical and paramedical personnel stayed on.

Between two million and four million Pakistanis were affected by the quake and are in desperate need of medical help. In the immediate aftermath of the quake, 80,000 people died. The United Nations has estimated that 380,000 people are in need of emergency housing before mid-December. The aid pledged by the international community looks generous on paper but not much relief was received immediately. According to official figures, only $216 million out of the U.N.'s relief appeal of $550 million has been committed. The biggest cash donors, according to Pakistani officials, are the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Iran.

However, away from the glare of the international media, a team of Cuban doctors has been working among the quake-affected. The Cuban government offered its medical expertise to the governments of Pakistan and India immediately after the magnitude of the destruction caused by the quake was known. The Indian government did not even acknowledge the offer. Pakistan, where the scale of disaster was humongous, was quick to accept the offer. The first Cuban medical team was in Pakistan on October 14, six days after the earthquake.

That team was the same as the one assembled when Hurricane Katrina had struck the U.S. America too did not respond to the Cuban offer even as thousands of people were in dire need of medical and humanitarian assistance.

No false pride or ideological barriers, however, stood in the way of the Pakistani government accepting the offer. In fact, the two countries have not even exchanged Ambassadors so far. The Pakistan government is also known for its proximity to Washington. The decision of the Pervez Musharraf government to unhesitatingly welcome the medical mission came as a surprise to many observers. The hawks in the Bush administration would not have been too happy with the turn of events. Pakistani officials were evidently aware of the expertise Cuban doctors have accumulated by working in disaster-affected areas around the world.

The Cuban government set up the Henry Reeve International Team of Medical Specialists in Disasters and Epidemics recently. Reeve fought in the American Civil War and later participated in Cuba's First War of Independence in the latter half of the 19th century, where he distinguished himself for bravery (he died on the battlefield). The units of this specialised, rapid response team were recently in the remote areas of Guatemala, where massive flooding had caused thousands of deaths and the threat of disease was looming. The same team is deployed currently in Pakistan. At this moment, there are around 25,000 Cuban doctors working in over 100 countries.

Cuban President Fidel Castro said recently in a televised "round table" that unlike other countries, which sent "equipment, a number of helicopters and a few million dollars", Cuba helped in a discreet way. "You cannot sort out anything with a few million; what is needed are medical personnel to save lives and treat the sick, but they cannot send anyone because they don't have them, nor could they even assemble them. This is where you can appreciate what a genuine revolution is, the values that it inculcates, the enormous wealth of human capital that we have created." Cuba's expertise in disaster preparedness has been recognised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Association of Caribbean States have selected Havana, the Cuban capital, as the headquarters of the Cross Cultural Network for Disaster Risk Reduction to facilitate regional cooperation in disaster management.

Today, more than a thousand Cuban medical personnel, 789 of them trained doctors, are working in remote mountain villages in Pakistan. Of the doctors, 44 per cent are women. Though hailing from a tropical island, the Cubans are not complaining about living in tents in freezing weather and in an alien culture.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry officials said that the Cuban doctors were not bothered about personal comforts but were interested only in doing their best to save lives. Cuban First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez told the media during a visit to Pakistan in mid-November that Cuban doctors had conducted more than 2,000 operations. They have set up 19 field hospitals and work in 12-hour shifts. They are working in crowded refugee camps. They have been treating an exceptionally large number of children suffering from trauma. Thirteen more field hospitals, with the latest high-tech equipment are being set up.

The leading Pakistani newspaper Dawn quoted President Musharraf as saying that "one of the most heart-warming letters of support" following the earthquake was from Fidel Castro. In his letter, Castro said that it was difficult for him to rest when thousands of Pakistanis were spending their days in pain, awaiting surgery.

Musharraf is impressed by the "spirit and compassion" shown by the Cuban medical team. In a telephone conversation, Musharraf expressed his "deep gratitude" to Castro for the help rendered to the Pakistani people. Castro assured Musharraf that his country would stand by Pakistan during its "hour of trial and tragedy". Cuba has provided the largest contingent of doctors and paramedics to Pakistan. The entire logistic and administrative costs are also being borne by Cuba. The High Commissioner of Pakistan to India, Aziz Ahmad Khan, told this correspondent that it was indeed commendable that a small country so far away had shown its solidarity with the victims of the earthquake. He was all praise for the work being done by the Cuban medical contingent. He said that these contributions would be remembered by generations to come.

Reports have started appearing in the Pakistani press focussing on the advances made by Cuba in healthcare and education. An article in The News said that countries such as Pakistan had much to learn from Cuba in developing a public health infrastructure "that is superior to what is found in much of the First World". Javed Jabbar, a former Minister who served under Benazir Bhutto and briefly under Musharraf, told this correspondent in New Delhi that the Pakistani people were witnessing for the first time Cuban proficiency in the medical field. He said that Cuban medical personnel had built an excellent rapport with the local populace, with some of them even picking up a smattering of Urdu. Jabbar said that he was told that the work of the medical mission was an illustration of the strides Cuba had made in the field of medicine. "Despite its size, Cuba is a medical and education superpower," said Jabbar.