HAVANA, Cuba, Oct. 23, 2014, CNS – Cuba has sent 91 nurses and doctors to Guinea and Liberia to join 165 already in Sierra Leone — making this island of 11 million people one of the largest global contributors of medical workers to the fight against Ebola.
The commitment has drawn rare praise from the U.S. and focused worldwide attention on Cuba's unique programme of medical diplomacy.
Cuba has more than 50,000 medical workers in more than 60 countries, many in nations like Brazil that pay hundreds of millions a year for their services. Others are on humanitarian missions that generate good will abroad and bolster Cuba's efforts to portray its medical system as one of the most important successes of a socialist economy wracked by slow growth, shortages and chronic underinvestment.
Despite a recent set of pay raises, most Cuban doctors' salaries don't top $75 a month, less than many workers who work in tourism or other sectors that bring in money from abroad. The foreign missions almost uniformly offer the chance to earn extra pay, in many cases enough to buy a bigger home or new car.
Critics of Cuba's communist government have accused it in the past of exploiting the doctors by giving them only a meager portion of the money paid for their services and keeping the lion's share for the national treasury.
But those who believe strongly in Cuba's communist revolutionary ideology say a mission abroad is fundamental to the health workers' self-identity.
All men, most of the volunteers have at least 20 years of experience, have completed several missions overseas and are married with children, who are often adults who themselves work in the Cuban medical system.
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