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Cuba : Health Care & Alternative Healing in Cuba
October 03, 2009
- October 12, 2009
Family doctor clinic in rural Cuba. "The life of one child is worth more than all the wealth in the world." -- Che Guevara
"Cuba is by far the healthiest poor country, as well as the poorest healthy country."
-- Global Exchange Delegation member, 2004
For twenty years, Global Exchange has organized these tours to study Cuba's internationally lauded health care system, which has been providing high quality, free universal health care to its 11,000,000 citizens for fifty years.
Throughout the 1960's, 70's and 80's, the Cuban people enjoyed the highest quality-of-life indices in Latin America, rivaling the United States and other countries of the developed world. Cuba was internationally praised as the one developing country that had eradicated hunger, and the World Health Organization touted the Cuban health care system as a "model for the world." In 1989, Cuba ranked 11th in the world in the Overseas Development Council's Physical Quality of Life Index, (which includes infant mortality, life expectancy and literacy) while the U.S. ranked 15th.
Despite the setbacks of the 1990's, caused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the tightening of the U.S. Embargo, Cuba's Health indices did not decline during that decade, but continued to improve. Many new innovations in the fields of Biotechnology and Health Tourism were achieved, as well as a remarkable integration of Natural and Traditional Medicine at all levels of care. Cuba's three-tiered system of Hospitals, Polyclinics, and Family Doctors continues to reach all sectors of the Cuban population with a variety of preventive, therapeutic, and curative practices.
In 2006, the United Nations Development Program selected Cuba's Program for the Development of Natural and Traditional Medicine as one of the five most important health-related programs worldwide. And the World Wildlife Fund designated Cuba the only nation in the world that could truly be said to be living "sustainably" because of its high human development index (nutrition, health care, education levels) and its low "ecological footprint" (resource use per capita).
Cuba models, for the rest of the world, the possibility of obtaining a high quality of life, on a relatively small national budget, while utilizing low levels of the planet's limited resources. It's Health Care System is but one of many areas in which this tiny island nation is showing us a way to live simply, healthfully, and sustainably on the Earth.
Program Highlights:
- Read a sample itinerary -- This is a tentative itinerary and is subject to change
Cost:
$2550, double occupancy when available; single occupany supplement, $300
Price Includes:
- Flight from Cancun to Havana
- Flight from Havana to Cancun
- Two meals per day
- Accommodations
- In-country translation
- In-country transportation
- Program fees
- Price is based on double room accommodations; add $300 for single room
- Price does NOT include airfare to/from Cancun, beverages, gratuities, travel insurance, personal expenditures, etc.
How to Register:
We must receive your application and a non-refundable deposit of $200 two months before departure. A late fee of $50 will be applied to late applications. Payments by Mastercard or Visa are welcome.
Make your reservation online now!
Contact Leslie with any questions about this trip,
or call toll-free 1-800-497-1994 ext. 242.
Trips on related issues: Art and Culture
Environment and Sustainability
Health and Healing
Spirituality and Religion
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Resources
"Commitment to care: Nurses in Cuba offer a Glimpse into the Island Republic's Health System" by Carol Cantor
"Cuba's Cure"
by Sarah van Gelder
The Cuban Health Care System
from The Social Medicine Portal
The Cuban Paradox
Harvard Public Health Review, Summer 2002
Health Care in Cuba
from the USA-Cuba InfoMed Project
"¡Salud!" the Film
Cuba's Medical System: A Public Health Paradox?
"Cuba's Cure" by Sarah van Gelder
"Pain Clinic: The Impact of Traditional and Natural Medicine" by Fe Bosch et al
Overview articles on Health Care System and International Health Programs
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