Backpack Library for New MDs

“I go on foot to see my patients up and down the coast.  MEDICC’s backpack library is right there with me. It’s like having my professors by my side.”  Dr. Luther Castillo, Honduras Latin American Medical School Class of 2005

Every year, MEDICC provides The Merck Manual and, jointly with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), PAHO’s Control of Communicable Diseases, to 1,500 graduates of the Latin American Medical School from nearly 30 countries. 

The textbooks—packed in a sturdy backpack—also go to the top 300 Cuban medical graduates. These books—plus others provided by Cuban medical schools—are key references for these new physicians, many of them heading out to practice in their countries’ most remote communities.

“We are the children of the unemployed, of janitors, of household servants, and those who suffer in the fields, and for those people who can’t pay the 30-40 dollars that it costs to see a doctor in our countries, who never imagined that in their life they could receive medical care, we are the fulfillment of their dream,” said Dr Ana Marta da Silva Santos, ELAM Class of 2008, from Bahia, Brazil, who spoke at the July 2008 ceremony where the backpacks were delivered. “When we begin to practice, we can each hang a sign on our door that says, “I welcome you, not as a client, but as a patient because I am a doctor trained in Cuba.” 

For more information, contact Jerrontay Foster, MEDICC’s Financial Director and coordinator of this program.