Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor
ZIMBABWE and Cuba have pledged to expand collaboration in the health sector through human resource training and the promotion of biopharmaceutical technology transfer.
This comes as the two countries share the same predicament of having to drive their economic development under the weight of illegal and unjust economic sanctions imposed by the West.
It came out when Cuba’s charge D’Affaires, Mrs Yoisy Ford Garcia paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Douglas Mombeshora in Harare this Wednesday.
“We will continue working with Cuba and we are going to explore the area of training. Training our doctors as undergraduates and also targeting postgraduates specialisation. This is an area which is of interest to us so we are going to fine-tune it and see how we are going to start the programme and how we can also strengthen our training locally by getting trainers from Cuba,”
“We have also spoken about issues of improving telemedicine. We have also discussed about conducting outreach programmes in hard-to-reach areas, especially in rural areas. We have been doing outreaches but concentrating mainly on urban areas,” said Dr Mombeshora.
With the two countries faced with illegal economic sanctions imposed by the West, calls are being made for more collaboration to strengthen the health system.
Mrs Garcia said, “We had a successful meeting with the minister of health. We exchanged with him all our ideas to strengthen the health systems of both countries. Both countries are under sanctions from Western countries, so this is a great opportunity to continue tightening and strengthening our health Systems,”
“The Cuba medical brigade came to Zimbabwe to work in Bulawayo, Harare and Chitungwiza Hospitals. Our doctors are happy and we are happy to support and contribute to the health system of Zimbabwe. We also discussed on how to continue improving and strengthening the health system of Zimbabwe through training local doctors.”
Relations between Havana and Harare date back to the days of the liberation struggle when Cuba supported Zimbabwe’s fight against the colonial regime.
Cuba has also been sending doctors to complement local health personnel.
