Several speakers highlighted the role the Cuban Medical Brigade (BMC) has played in Bolivia and its support for the My Health program, during an event to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the group''s work in this Amazonian Andean nation.
 
The first Cuban collaborators who arrived here in 2006 were members of the Henry Reeve contingent and came here to attend to the victims of heavy rains.
 
The collaborators have been working in all nine Bolivian departments, in 36 provinces and 47 municipalities, BMC National Coordinator Pavel Noa said.
 
The brigade is composed of 740 members, including 366 physicians, 149 nurses, 165 health professionals and technicians and 49 members who are responsible for ensuring medical care, he said.
 
After analyzing last year's achievements, Noa recalled that more than two million consults and 19,000 births were reported during that period, when about 6,000 lives were saved.
 
He highlighted the participation of the BMC in Health Fairs, the relaunch of Operation Miracle by President Evo Morales in November, the 10th anniversary of the Collaborators' Clinic and the inclusion of Cuban health workers in the My Health program.
 
More than 2,800 doctors have worked in this plan, which has benefited 306 of 339 municipalities, and the Cuban doctors are working in most of them, Bolivian Health Minister Ariana Campero said.
 
According to Campero, the objective is to implement a new model of family, community and intercultural care.
 
During the closing ceremony of the event, Cuban Ambassador to Bolivia Benigno Perez stressed that the resources for the functioning of the ophthalmological centers were obtained in 2016, as part of Operation Miracle.
 
The diplomat also referred to the several health fairs held last year, including the one that took place in Chapare on the occasion of Fidel Castro's 90th birthday.
 
The ambassador announced similar events in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara.
 
Collaborators with more than 20 years' experience in the sector were granted the Manuel Piti Fajardo medal at the ceremony.
 
Doctors from all departments and from Collaborators' Clinic, Bolivian officials and the representative of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), Fernando Leanes, also participated in the event.