(MENAFN- Jordan Times) It was really a milestone in terms of cooperation between Palestine and Venezuela. Yet, it was never reported in most of the international media.
The fact that the Venezuelan government has granted scholarships to many Palestinians to study medicine in our country should have stood out as a significant event, at least in the Arab countries, especially after the latest shameful aggression of the Zionist state against Gaza, but the media kept silent, only disseminating bad news about Venezuela: high inflation, crime and corruption, among others.
According to a widespread stereotypical image, Venezuela is viewed as a very rich country possessing abundantly the means to carry out such a cooperation programme.
The fact of the matter is that we are a middle-income developing nation still suffering from economic dependency and poverty.
It is true that the Bolivarian government has managed to curtail the inequality index and to reduce the poverty rate in less than 15 years from more than 50 per cent to 20 per cent, the greatest recorded reduction a Latin American country has ever experienced in such a short span, and that we have fulfilled all the Millennium Development Goals well before the target achievement date, 2015, fixed by the United Nations in 2000, but that does not mean that we are rich: We are poor but generous, and our commitment to the Arab cause is ironclad and hopefully everlasting.
More precisely, Venezuela has granted 170 scholarships to Palestinian students from Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan so far, and 100 more that will be awarded this coming January.
Those are, of course, full room and board scholarships, in addition to a yearly travel to and from Palestine, and some monthly pocket money.
Moreover, President Nicolás Maduro announced last week that the goal is to reach the mark of 1,000 scholarship beneficiaries for 2015.
The students are expected to pursue their studies for six years at the 'Latin American School of Medicine Dr Salvador Allende', with a total of 14,084 hours of classes and practice, while medical students traditionally study only for 8,500 hours on average.
On top of the six years, the students also do six months of studies, before joining the programme, in other subject areas, such as biology and mathematics.
The successful completion of this first phase is a sine qua non condition for being accepted in the full formal programme.
The students will also learn how to be community doctors, that is, to understand the social issues underlying poor health.
In explaining the difference between the new community doctors and traditional ones, Antonio Torres, national coordinator of the Community Medicine Programme remarked: 'In traditional medicine, what is important is specialisation, managing to get one's own private clinic, whereas the humanist and community vision of medicine prioritises primary attention. That isn't a small thing. It's at the first level of heathcare where 85 per cent of health problems are intercepted.'
Torres also criticised traditional medical programmes for not being able to 'respond to the real and concrete problems of the people.
Practice has to be included in the curriculum from the first year, and that's why our programme is called a 'community' programme, because the students go out to the communities right from the start'.
The programme balances theory and practice in the community health clinics by treating patients according to high clinical standards and promoting good health practices, while working on the prevention of illness and providing support to long-term treatments and rehabilitation processes.
This programme is intended to equip a medical doctor with a broad range of expertise as a companion who is well aware of the multi-factorial nature of health problems.
Eventually, our commitment to the Palestinian cause does not start or end with providing these medical scholarships.
We have been for the longest time at the forefront of Palestinian solidarity action. For example, we have flown to Egypt a Hercules plane full of aid to Gaza less than two months ago.
Most recently, our president said that our people had to greet the next contingent of Palestinian medical students with 'love and care'.
Venezuela is already home to a large Arab community, which has never been discriminated against and which has melted in the mainstream culture, making a valuable contribution to the national development process.
All this means that Palestinian students will be spontaneously well greeted upon their arrival, as were those migrants before them from the Arab world who have been seeking refuge and dignity for more than a century in Latin America. May God bless them all!
The writer is ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.
MENAFN0508201700280000ID1095697740
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.