Pope Francis Tells Cubans To Arise! Cubans Then Send 63 Doctors 102 Nurses, Epidemiologists, Specialists In Infection Control To Fight Ebola!

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases. Our Lady of La Salette 19 Sept. 1846 (Published by Mélanie 1879) 

“The earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds (in addition to plague and famine which will be wide-spread). Our Lady of La Salette 19 Sept. 1846 (Published by Mélanie 1879)

THE POPE WRITES TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS OF CUBA: REJOICE, RISE AND PERSEVERE

Vatican City, 6 September 2014 (VIS) – On 8 September, the festivity of the Nativity of Mary, Cubans also celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the patroness of the island. To commemorate the occasion, the Pope has written a letter to the metropolitan archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio Guillermo Garcia Ibanez, president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba (C.O.O.C.), extensive extracts from which are published below:

“Every time I read the Sacred Scripture, in the passages that speak about Our Lady, three verbs come to my attention. I would like to pause and look at these, with the intention of inviting the pastors and faithful of Cuba to put them into practice.

“The first is to rejoice. It was the first word that the Angel Gabriel addressed to the Virgin: “Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you”. The life of those who have discovered Jesus is full of an inner joy so great that nothing and no-one can take it away. Christ gives his people the necessary strength not to be sad or overwhelmed, thinking that their problems have no solution. Supported by this truth, the Christian has no doubt that what is done with love engenders a serene joy, the sister of the hope that breaks down the barrier of fear and opens the doors to a promising future. … How good it would be if all Cubans, especially the young, could say: “I am a man of charity”; I live truly to love, and not to be trapped in the vicious circle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. What joy there is in loving authentically, in our daily actions, and not with plentiful but empty words that amount to nothing”.

“The second verb is to rise. St. Luke says that, with Jesus in her womb, Mary rose and promptly went to help her kinswoman Elizabeth, who in her old age was about to become a mother. She fulfilled God's will, making herself available to anyone in need. She did not think of herself, but instead overcame setbacks and gave herself to others. Victory belongs to those who rise again and again, without giving up. If we imitate Mary, we cannot do so while sitting down, merely complaining, or even at times passing the buck to others rather than facing our own responsibilities. … Mary was always with her people, especially the least among them. She knew loneliness, poverty and exile, and learned how to create fraternity and to make her home any place where goodness grew. We implore her to give us a poor soul without pride, a pure heart that sees God in the faces of the disadvantaged, and unwavering patience that does not give up when faced with the difficulties of life”.

“The third verb is to persevere. Mary, who had experienced God's goodness, proclaimed the greatness He had worked in her. … For this reason, she stood by her Son, when everyone else had abandoned Him; she prayed without fail alongside the apostles and other disciples, lest they lose their mind. ...We too are called upon to continued in the love of God and to continue loving our neighbours. In this world, in which eternal values are discarded and everything is subject to change, in which a throwaway mentality triumphs, and in which there is fear of lifelong commitments, the Virgin encourages us to be men and women constantly engaged in good work, who maintain their word, who are always faithful”.

“Be joyful and share this with those around you. Lift your heart and do not succumb to adversity, stay on the path of good, tirelessly helping those who are oppressed by sorrows and troubles. These are the important lessons Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre teaches us, and which are useful to us now and in the future”.

Statement by Dr. Roberto Morales Ojeda, Minister of Public Health of the Republic of Cuba, at a press conference in the World Health Organization. Geneva, September 12, 2014.

The purpose of our visit to Geneva has been to meet the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Margaret Chang, to response, on behalf of the Cuban government, to the help request made by her and by the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Mr. Ban Ki Moon, to the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, as part of the global effort that must be carried out to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The Cuban government, as it has always done in these 55 years of Revolution,has decided to participate in this global effort under the coordination of WHO to face this dramatic situation. At the same time, it calls the Governments and Ministers of Health of all countries to join the fight against this scourge.

Since the first moment, Cuba decided to keep our medical brigades in Africa regardless of the existence of the Ebola epidemic and particularly in Sierra Leone and Guinea Conakry, with prior voluntary willingness of its members, which is an expression of the spirit of solidarity and humanism that characterizes our people and government.

The aidto be offered will be through WHO, consisting on selected human resources based on all those who have voluntarily stated their willingness to work together, side by side, with doctors from any country that be decided, including USA. We will cooperatewith a brigade of 165 collaborators, consisting of 62 doctors and 103 nurses. All of them have more than 15 years of professional experience and have worked in other countries facing natural and epidemiological disasters, and also have worked in medical cooperation missions, 23% of them more than once.

In addition, we have taken measuresin our country, as part of the International Health Control, on the arrival and departure of travelers and we have strengthened the National Hygienic-Epidemiological Surveillance System.

This Cuban response has as its premise the fact that the Revolution did not wait for the development of its health services to provide help to other countries. Only one year after its triumph, in 1960, the first international medical aid is offered to Chile to take care of the victims of an earthquake and onMay 23rd, 1963, the first Cuban Medical Brigade leaves to Algeria, consisting of 55 collaborators, to provide their services for a year.

In the 1970s, the solidarity collaboration is broaden to Latin America, Africa and Asia countries and in 1998, with hurricanes George and Mitch in the Caribbean and Central America, the Health Comprehensive Program starts; a program where 25 288 health professionals have been involved in 32 countries.

Cuba has also contributed to the training of professionals of the medical sciences from 121 countries of Asia, Africa and America. It has graduated 38 940 physicians to date, out of which 24 486 belong to the 10 graduations of the Latin American School of Medicine, inaugurated by our Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro Ruz, in November 1999, as a complement to the sustainability of the Health Comprehensive Program.

Currently,we collaborate with teachers in the training of medical science human resources in 10 countries, with an enrollment of 29 580 students.

One of the mostsensitive and humane programs, Operation Miracle, for which we had the collaboration of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, began on July 6th, 2004. We have cooperated in 35 countries and 2 890 469 patients, 36 636 from Africa, have improved or recovered their vision.

After the stroke of hurricane Katrina to the city of New Orleans, the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade of Doctors Specialized in Handling Disasters and Large Epidemics was created on September 19th, 2005. At the time, 10 000 medical doctors offered themselves to help the US people, but this help was not accepted by the US government. Nonetheless, from that moment on, 39 brigades have been present in emergency situations in 23 countries.

Disability, as oneof the most pressing problems in our countries, led since 2008, to a psychosocial and clinical-genetic study of this population. This allowed to reach the homes of 1 500 000 people with disabilities in Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

In Africa, 76 744 health collaborators have been to 39 countries since the beginning of the cooperation to date. Currently, there are 4 048 cooperators in 32 countries, out of which 2 069 are medical doctors.

Cuba is present today in 66 countries with 50 731 health workers, 64.6% of them are women and 25 412 are physicians.

As a result of all these years of solidarity and cooperation, 595 482 missions have been carried out in 158 countries, with the participation of 325 710 health workers, many of which have been in two, three and more missions.

During these years of cooperation, our medical workers have made more than 207 billion medical consultations, more than 2 280 000 deliveries, 8 million surgical interventions, and more than 12 million children and pregnant women have been immunized.

As it can be seen, our participation in facing the Ebola in West Africa is not an isolated event. It is part of the support and solidarity that Cuba has provided in these 55 years of Revolution, in areas such as education, sports, culture, science, and particularly in the field of health, under the principle of not giving what is left over, but of sharing what we have.

On behalf of the Cuban government we reiterate the call to the governments and Ministers of Health of all countries to join this global effort at a time when Africa is in urgent need for the international solidarity.

Thank you very much.