Brazilians from the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement arrive in Cuba to fulfill their dream of studying medicine

Brasil de Fato

In a new academic year, Cuba welcomes fifteen young Brazilians from families linked to the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST, in Portuguese) to study medicine as scholarship students at Havana’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).  

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes ELAM as one of the largest medical schools in the world. The school aims to train doctors from various regions of the world, focusing on the poorest and most underprivileged communities.   

The MST has promoted a second group of young Brazilians studying medicine on the Caribbean Island. “We want to be part of creating a medical practice that isn’t focused on money but on caring for people,” says Ana Vitoria da Silva, from Ceará state to Brasil de Fato. 

In addition to training doctors, ELAM aims to contribute to the development of a “humanistic medical profession.” By focusing on community work, the school’s teaching programs recognize illness as both a “natural and biological” issue, as well as a social one, often caused or exacerbated by poverty and inequality. 

The young student says that “medical practice is very elitist in many parts of the world, which means that many doctors lack sensitivity or humanization. I believe that, along with my colleagues, we have come in search of a humanized medicine—that seeks to look at the patient as a whole, not just as a disease.”  

For Ana Karolina Cabeçoni, 18, also a group member, it is “a precious opportunity to share the struggles of the Cuban people.”   

“We talk a lot about Cuba and often know little about its history. These people have always shared what they have, not just what they have left over. And I think that being able to learn about their history while we’re here, as well as being able to study medicine, is a unique opportunity. It’s also an opportunity for us to offer a different perspective on what is believed to be happening here.”  

MST’s brigade of young medical students / Brasil de Fato

Medicine as a banner of solidarity  

ELAM opened its doors in 1999. That year, the Caribbean region was going through a serious humanitarian crisis caused by hurricanes George and Mitch, two tropical cyclones that devastated the entire area, killing more than 10,000 people.  

The catastrophe affected several countries, such as Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Panama. These countries not only suffered human and infrastructure losses but also saw the spread of diseases caused by the rising waters.  

Cuba decided to send doctors to various affected countries. However, the aid was not limited to sending personnel. In this context, the Caribbean island – which was going through a serious economic crisis known as the “special period” – decided to build a medical university to train health professionals from the affected countries.  

The school began receiving hundreds of students from the Caribbean through a scholarship system designed to allow young people with few economic resources to study medicine for free.  

Over time, the project spread to different regions of the world, and students arrived from other parts of Latin America, expanding to Africa – an area with which Cuba has historically forged ties – and even from the United States.  

ELAM has trained around 31,000 doctors from almost 120 different countries, including more than a thousand Brazilians.  

Currently, most students come from Colombia as part of the peace agreements signed between Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In these agreements, it was established that ELAM would receive young people from areas affected by violence and offer them vocational training for their social reintegration.  

Among the groups with the largest presence are also students of Palestinian origin, born in Gaza or the West Bank, as well as in refugee camps, as part of Cuba’s solidarity with the Palestinian cause.