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A Cuban South-South summer
Chilean professionals trained on the
island and young people still studying are working
together in their country’s poorest region
Camilo Villa Juica
RENAICO, Chile.—The poor commune of Renaico, 500
kilometers south of Santiago de Chile, is an
exceptional place. Its mayor, Juan Carlos Reinao,
and many municipal officials, have a past in common:
they studied for their university degrees in Cuba.
For that reason, it comes as no surprise that
current Chilean students in this country, taking
advantage of vacations back home, are working
voluntarily in the commune, part of La Araucanía
region, the poorest in Chile.
“Health as part of your home,” was the axiom
promoting the event, baptized the Students for
Health Brigade (BES), which took place August 11-18
and reaffirms the work undertaken in different
localities of the country since 2004 by various
generations of medial students in Cuba.
The
mayor relates how the project came about. “I
traveled to Cuba in April and had the opportunity of
meeting with Chilean youth there. It was decided to
do the BES in Renaico because of the affinity that
there was with myself, as well as current workers in
the municipality.”
It
took four months to organize the idea, whose mission
was to promote health among the 10,000-plus
inhabitants of the region. Students of medicine,
sports and journalism in Cuba, working with already
graduated doctors and young people from some Chilean
universities, revolutionized the area with the five
commissions, comprising social health, promoter
training, sports and culture, politics and
communication, and medicine on the ground.
In
Chile, health is a veritable privilege. Consulting a
doctor within the private system costs an average of
$70, which Renaico inhabitant Ericka Muñoz, cannot
afford. Taking advantage of the occasion, she
decided to consult the professionals taking part in
BES. “I suffer from migraines, that’s why I came for
an appointment, the work they are doing here is very
good, and you don’t have to pay anything, I am very
content,” she affirmed smiling.
Like
Ericka, the children of Renaico were very happy when
puppets appeared in their schools to teach them the
correct way to clean their teeth. Young adults also
enjoyed entertaining activities, orientating them on
issues as significant for their age group as
sexuality, alcoholism and smoking, among others.
“Thank you for remembering us,” stated inhabitants
of the sector, the vast majority of whom have to do
a juggling act to get to the end of the month with
any money to spare.
For
Alihuen Antileo, a Mapuche student of medicine in
Cuba, the principal strength of BES is they way in
which the groups worked with the population. “People
are more grateful for the form of treating them than
the treatment in itself. The form very much appeals
to them, the attention of health workers who have
come from Cuba. That is something which reaffirms
the humanitarian sentiment which medicine must have,
because it cannot just be science and exactitude,
but must also be a support, company, a voice,
someone who listens.”
The
Renaico inhabitants were witnesses of how health can
be a right and not a privilege and are grateful; for
that reason a group of young people from the sector
decided to make a mural with the Mapuche, Chilean
and Cuban flags. Mapuche, because many of the
students in Cuba are from this ethnic group, and
Cuba, because, as Alihuen Antileo stated to
Granma, “There’s everything of Cuba in this, we
feel like representatives of Cuba and everything
that we are doing, every effort, we owe to the
island. We are Chilean and Mapuche compañeros
proud of being trained in Cuba.”
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