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Solidarity with Cuba in 2004
Trueta Foundation sends medicine and equipment totaling $2 million
• President of the Catalan organization expresses admiration for the island’s “vocation in helping other nations.” BY ALBERTO D. PÉREZ —Special
for Granma International— IN 2004, the Dr. Trueta Foundation sent Cuba medicine and medical equipment to the value of 1.8 million euros ($2.35 million), excluding the transportation costs that were also paid for by
the Catalan humanitarian organization. The donations included 3,699,833 doses of medicines, as well as wheelchairs, hospital beds, disposable medical material, sewing machines, garments, hospital and surgical hygiene material,
crutches, lingerie, health workers’ uniforms, prescription glasses, scales for pharmacies and many other articles essential for the smooth running of medical, pharmaceutical, hospital and recovery services. Dr. Carles Furriols,
president of the Dr. Trueta Foundation, confirmed that this institution has extended its humanitarian support to hospitals and healthcare organizations in Matanzas, as well as similar institutions in Old Havana, Holguín, Granma, Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba.
Some of the Trueta donations are destined for children with auditory, visual, or locomotion problems and the foundation also supports a program for the detection and early prevention of neoplasia in women in the province of Granma.
The Dr. Trueta Foundation was created in October 1993 by healthcare professionals in the Catalan city of Vich – 70 kilometers from Barcelona – with the aim of “providing support to developing countries in the field of healthcare.” The Foundation bears the name of an eminent Catalan doctor, Dr. Josep Trueta, who worked tirelessly from 1936-39 in Barcelona Hospital attending to civilians with shrapnel wounds from the intense bombardment of the city’s densely populated areas
and other republican locations in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. “With the humanitarian example that Dr. Trueta left us, the Foundation operates in five different geographical areas,” said Furriols. “The Caribbean with Cuba at
the center; Central America (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras); South America (Peru and Bolivia); Sub-Saharan Africa (Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo); and in the Far East ( Democratic People’s Republic of Korea),” explained Carles Furriols.
“We began our links with Cuba in 1997, when we traveled to Santa Clara at the invitation of the Medical Science Institute. There we found a very operative healthcare structure, tremendous human capacity and professionals, who were highly qualified and
motivated, which guaranteed the success of the whole cooperation project,” added the Catalan doctor. “At the same time, we admire Cuba’s vocation for helping other nations. This principle of solidarity, which is also an act of
justice, is consistent with our way of working and thinking. Therefore, working in Cuba is a very enriching experience for us. We interact with people in the field of healthcare who are capable and have a strong sense of solidarity and a permanent spirit of improvement,” remarked Furriols.
In its links with Cuba, the Dr. Trueta Foundation supports the channels of work and cooperation that have been opened up by the UN’s Local Development Program. The Dr.
Trueta Foundation is an expression of the enormous reserves of human solidarity that do exist in the industrialized nations. From beautiful Catalonia, the Dr. Trueta Foundation and its members illuminate the world and are examples of this compassion and love for their counterparts.
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