Cuba: Contronting COVID and the U.S. Blockade

media release: On Tuesday, Oct. 12, at 7pm, Wisconsin peace and human rights organizations will present a virtual program in support of Pastors for Peace, which is resuming Friendshipment trips to Cuba next month, and has handled the admission of US students to Cuba's free medical school, including two new doctors from Milwaukee. This virtual program will feature Gail Walker, head of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) and Pastors for Peace, plus both recent medical school graduates from Wisconsin, Olive Albanese and Alexandra Skeeter.

This is a fundraiser for IFCO/Pastors for Peace, which was founded by the late Rev. Lucius Walker, who also was the founding Executive Director of Milwaukee's Northcott Neighborhood House and established the first Head Start program in Milwaukee.  Rev. Walker founded Pastors for Peace after he was shot in an attack in Nicaragua by the "contra" terrorists who were illegally funded by his and our tax money -- its goal is to help educate the U.S. public on the effect of our policies in Latin America, including Cuba. Gail Walker was also on that trip; she graduated from Marquette University, and worked as a community organizer in Milwaukee before moving to New York.

IFCO/PfP is currently taking applications for its first Friendshipment to Cuba since the beginning of the pandemic, based on Cuba reaching a high level of vaccinations, including a highly effective vaccine for children two years and older -- making it the first nation to implement mass vaccinations of children ages 2-18.  Gail Walker recently returned from two weeks in Cuba and observed first hand the current situation there as a basis for her report: "Cuba: Confronting COVID and the US Blockade" on Zoom. Click here to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsdeyvpjsvGN2eqR3yog84WWTznSJ7UT0D

Our two Wisconsin medical school graduates will give us their first hand accounts of what it was like studying the Cuban model of medicine and how they think it will affect their upcoming years of practice in the communities they serve. Cuba has offered them and thousands of students worldwide six years of free medical school in exchange for their promise to return home and work in an underserved setting, debt-free.

Hosted by Peace Action of Wisconsin, Party for Socialism and Liberation - Milwaukee and The Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba.