The Medical School Scholarship Program
At the Latin American School of Medicine, in Havana, Cuba
Here you can find the latest news from Medical School Program.
Quicklinks: program overview | request an application
Click here to make a year-end tax deductible donation to IFCO!
You can make a year-end tax deductible donation to IFCO today via our secure website:
https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=4382
Dear Sisters and Brothers, Compañeros and Compañeras,
These are challenging times – but hope also fills the air.
Fr. Luis Barrios with Occupy Faith on Wall St. October 9, 2011
As the “occupy” movement spreads across the country, we are elated about the growing climate of resistance. IFCO has been an active participant in this innovative international campaign. Despite its imperfections, IFCO continues to offer direct support. We remember that the Bible tells us: There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off (Proverbs 23:18).
On October 28th we had the opportunity to connect with many IFCO friends and supporters as the new Co-Executive Directors. What was remarkable about the evening was the level of good will and optimism that filled the room.
Thanks to the generosity of supporters like yourself, IFCO raised $25,000 and dozens of people pledged monthly gifts of as little as $10.00 and as much as $150.00.
IFCO was founded as, and continues to be, a grassroots organization with social, political, cultural, and spiritual commitment. It has been said "If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.” We at IFCO are standing for justice.
- If 500 supporters pledged $25 a month IFCO could purchase a dozen fully-equipped school buses for our 20th Anniversary Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba.
- A pledge of $50 a month from 100 of our supporters would raise $60,000. This would enable IFCO to hire two full time community organizers to work on domestic issues such as the environmentally devastating hydro-fracking, and expanding the fight for social justice.
- If 100 IFCO supporters pledge $100 a month we can create a urban justice peace project and produce culture of peace curriculums and alternatives to incarceration programs.
- $5,000 will help pay for the administrative workload for 20 newly selected students headed to the Latin American School of Medicine.
- $10,000 will help us organize our first consciousness-raising humanitarian aid caravan to Haiti.
- $15,000 will enable us to expand our fiscal sponsor services to dozens more grassroots community organizations across the U.S.
We know that you stand with us in this struggle at this historic juncture.
You also know how hard we work to stretch every donated dollar we receive. We hope you will take a moment now to send a check, make a monthly pledge or a one time donation by check, phone or our secure website.
You can take direct action to ensure that IFCO stays strong!
- Send a tax-deductible donation (check or credit card) today.
- Make a monthly pledge of $25, $50 or $100 to IFCO by mail, web or phone.
- Reach out to your networks - ask them to make a donation to IFCO today.
Click the Donate Now button on our website at:
https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=4382
When our founding Executive Director, Rev. Lucius Walker Jr. started the Latin American School of Medicine scholarship program ten years ago, he dreamed that a stream of committed young doctors would flow back into our communities. That dream is now a reality.
Gail Walker meeting with officials of the Latin American School of Medicine in November 2011.
Today 66 graduates and a dozen young doctors are in residency programs throughout the US. Dozens more are in the licensing pipeline – on their way to serving in communities that need them the most. Just this week a mother of a Medical School student from the South Bronx stopped by our office to thank us for helping her son to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a doctor.
It is important that we stand together to ensure IFCO’s future. We hope that you will continue to consider IFCO a resource for progressive social change.
With your support IFCO continues to build bridges with progressive activists throughout the U.S and in Latin America. There is no other national organization that can match IFCO’s ability to connect progressive communities working for human rights and peace with justice.
We are grateful for your continued support.
In solidarity and love,
Gail Walker and Fr. Luis Barrios
Co-Executive Directors
PBS News Hour Story featuring US Medical Students in Cuba
Dear friends and supporters
Yesterday we received a special unanticipated holiday gift: the Latin American School of Medicine was featured last night on the PBS News Hour! Ray Suarez did a piece about the international focus of Cuba's health care system; he interviewed 2nd-year US student Pasha Jackson and Academic Vice-Rector Dra. Maritza Gonzalez. You can see the video for yourself at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptFqmKlSHPQ
As 2010 draws to a close, we want you all to know that we at IFCO/Pastors for Peace are SO VERY PROUD of the extraordinary young people who have chosen (and been chosen) to study at the Latin American School of Medicine! We are SO honored to have the responsibility for administering this groundbreaking program in the US! We are SO excited about our next Friendshipment caravan to Cuba! We are SO impressed by the excellent work being done by dozens of community-based projects under IFCO's sponsorship -- and we are so full of gratitude for all the extraordinary support we have received in this challenging year, especially since the passing of our beloved founding director Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr.
Our year-end newsletter will be arriving in your mailbox very soon -- and we hope you will remember us as you plan your year-end tax-deductible donations. (If you don't receive our mailings, you may not be on our snail-mail list -- in which case, please do send us your address!)
You can also make a donation to IFCO/Pastors by clicking on the "Donate Now" button on our website.
We wish you many blessings at the holidays and in the new year.
In gratitude and solidarity,
Ellen Bernstein and Rev. Tom Smith,
Acting Co-directors --
and all of us at IFCO/Pastors for Peace:
Alison Bodine
Sheila Brown
Lucia Bruno
Manolo de los Santos
Mappy Torres
John Waller
Trained in Cuba, U.S. Doctors Describe Month in Haiti
by Renee Feltz, the Indypendent, March 12, 2010
After the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, Dr. Melissa Barber received a call asking her to help treat people left injured and living in squalid conditions.
“There was no question,” said Barber, 30, who was born and raised in the Bronx and worked in quality assessment at St. Barnabas Hospital in the heart of the borough. “I actually resigned and I made plans to go to Haiti for a month. That is how much it’s ingrained in me to help the underserved communities when they are in need.”
Curriculum and plan of studies
An overview of the curriculum and general plan of studies at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba Read more >
Frequently Asked Questions
Applicant criteria
- Be US citizens (with US passport)
- Be between the ages of 18 and 30
- Have completed college-level pre-med science courses (one year each of biology, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics, each with laboratory)
- Be physically and mentally fit
- Come from the humblest and neediest communities in the US
- Be committed to practice medicine in poor and underserved US communities after graduation
Applicants will be carefully selected by the IFCO Medical School Advisory Committee, based on applications, transcripts, interviews, letters of reference, etc. Final admissions decisions will be made by administrators of the Latin American School of Medicine and the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. Read more >
Latin American School of Medicine
Applicants should:
- Be US citizens (with US passport)
- Be between the ages of 18 and 30
- Have completed college-level pre-med science courses (one year each of biology, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics, each with laboratory)
- Be physically and mentally fit
- Come from the humblest and neediest communities in the US
- Be committed to practice medicine in poor and underserved US communities after graduation
Applicants will be carefully selected by the IFCO Medical School Advisory Committee, based on applications, transcripts, interviews, letters of reference, etc. Final admissions decisions will be made by administrators of the Latin American School of Medicine and the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. Read more >
Join us October 28th for a welcoming reception for Gail Walker and Father Luis Barrios
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Colors Restaurant is a worker cooperative that enables workers through self-governance and stands for better working conditions, improved wages, racial equality, and career mobility in the restaurant industry.
Save the Date! Oct 28th NYC Colors Restaurant --Special Message from Gail Walker and Father Luis Barrios
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Save the Date!
Join us October 28th for a
welcoming reception at Colors Restaurant
for Gail Walker and Father Luis Barrios
6:00 - 9:00 PM
417 Lafayette St. New York, NY 10003
September 29, 2011
Dear Friends,
The past year has been a busy and hectic one for us here at IFCO. September marked the one year anniversary of the death of our visionary founding director Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr. While it has been a very challenging time for our organization and our work, in the spirit of Lucius and thanks to your continuous support, we have persevered.
Despite tremendous economic challenges this year, we were able to organize an outstanding 22nd Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba. Our caravan stopped in 130 cities in 40 US states, Canada and Mexico collecting tons of valuable aid for Cuban schools, hospitals and churches and delivering the message that we must bring an end to the brutal US blockade of Cuba.
During our stay in Cuba we were overwhelmed by the love and respect the Cuban people showed for Rev. Walker and IFCO/Pastors for Peace. Memorial services were held in churches and seminaries throughout the island. Cuban church leaders, Vice President Esteban Lazo and National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon joined with the Caravan for a moving ceremony inside the Jose Martí Memorial in Havana where we paid tribute to our founder.
One of the proudest moments we experienced this year was meeting with recent graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine. Many of these young people are now engaged in residency programs in US hospitals, practicing what they have been trained to do: offering medical care in communities that need them the most. Just this week,a new graduate came by our office to tell us that she is headed to Mississippi to work in a clinic serving a rural community desperately in need of medical care.
On September 1st we began our work as Co-Executive Directors of IFCO bringing our combined passion, skills and commitment to the fight for justice on multiple fronts to help guide the organization ahead. We both possess a strong commitment to community organizing rooted in a faith-based tradition from a liberation perspective.
We need your financial support now to continue our existing programs and to expand our work into the future.
In addition to our current work in the coming months we will be:
- Helping to itinerate representatives of Cuban churches and the Cuban youth theater group La Colmenita which will bring a creative and special message about the plight of the Cuban 5 from a child’s perspective.
- Exploring how to incorporate environmental justice into our ongoing work. Industrial pollution including hydrofracking - the use of high pressure water to release natural gas underground - is generating immense toxic conditions resulting in serious chronic illness particularly for people of color and working people across the country.
- Organizing mini-medical clinics, with the help of our capable Medical School grads, we hope to further fulfill the promise of the Medical School Scholarship Program to have those students return to underserved communities to provide preventative medical care.
- Focusing our efforts on issues related to the prison industrial complex and abolishing the death penalty.
- We also plan to continue supporting the struggles of our brothers and sisters in Honduras, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, New Orleans and the Appalachia region.
As you can see we are hitting the ground running and will continue the great work IFCO has been engaged in since 1967 but your financial support is vital to help make that happen.
Won’t you please take a moment to make an online donation or write a check now to help support IFCO’s ongoing work for social justice?
Únase a nosotros para una recepcion de bienvenida
para Gail Walker y Padre Luis Barrios
6:00 - 9:00 PM el 28 de octubre de 2011
Colors Restaurant 417 Lafayette Street New York, NY 10003
Estimados amig@s,
Este ha sido un año ocupado y agitado para nosotros aquí en IFCO. El 7 de Septiembre marcó el primer aniversario de la muerte de nuestro director y fundador visionario Lucius Walker, Jr. A pesar de que ha sido un período muy difícil para nuestra organización y nuestro trabajo, en el espíritu de Lucius y gracias a su apoyo continuo hemos perseverado.
A pesar de las enormes dificultades económicas este año pudimos organizar nuestra 22 da Caravana de la Amistad a Cuba. Nuestra caravana visito a más de 130 ciudades en EE. UU., Canadá y México recogiendo toneladas de ayuda valiosa para escuelas, hospitales, e iglesias cubanas y a la vez transmitiendo el mensaje de que tenemos que ponerle fin al brutal bloqueo de EE.UU. contra Cuba.
Uno de los mejores momentos que hemos tenido este año fue la reunión con los últimos jóvenes graduados de la Escuela Latino-Americana de Medicina. Muchos de los graduados están participando en programas de residencia en hospitales de EE.UU., practicando para lo que fueron entrenados- ofrecer atención medica en las comunidades que más lo necesitan. Esta misma semana, una recién graduada llego a nuestra oficina para decirnos que ella se dirige a Mississippi a trabajar en una clínica que sirve a una comunidad rural que desesperadamente necesita atención medica.
El 1ro de septiembre empezamos nuestra función como Co-Directores Ejecutivos de IFCO. De manera combinada contribuimos nuestra pasión, habilidades y el compromiso con la lucha por la justicia en múltiples frentes y ayudaremos a guiar la organización hacia adelante. Los dos poseemos un fuerte compromiso con la organización comunitaria arraigada en una tradición basada en la fe desde la perspectiva de la liberación.
Necesitamos su apoyo financiero para continuar con nuestros programas ya existentes y ampliar nuestro trabajo en el futuro.
Además de nuestro trabajo actual, en los próximos meses estaremos:
- Acompañando a representantes de las iglesias cubanas y jóvenes cubanos del grupo de teatro infantil La Colmenita, que traerán un mensaje creativo y especial sobre la situación de las 5 Cubanos presos en los EEUU desde la perspectiva de un niño.
- Explorando la forma de incorporar la justicia ambiental en nuestro trabajo en curso. La contaminación industrial, incluyendo hydrofracking – el uso de agua a alta presión para liberar el gas natural subterráneo – generando inmensas condiciones toxicas resultando en graves enfermedades crónicas, sobre todo a personas de color y personas trabajadoras alrededor del país.
- Organizando mini-clínicas medicas con la ayuda de nuestros graduados de la Escuela de Medicina esperando seguir cumpliendo con la promesa del programa de becas para la Escuela de Medicina, de que los graduados regresen a las comunidades marginadas a proporcionar atención medica preventiva.
- Concentrando nuestro esfuerzo en temas relacionados con el complejo industrial de prisiones y la abolición de la pena de muerte.
- También planeamos seguir concentrando nuestro esfuerzos en las luchas de nuestros hermanos y hermanas de Honduras, Haití, República Dominicana, Nueva Orleans y la región de los Apalaches.
Como ustedes pueden ver, no nos detenemos y tenemos la intención de continuar la gran obra con la que IFCO tiene un compromiso desde 1967, pero su apoyo financiero es vital para hacer esto posible.
Por favor ¿podría usted tomar un momento para hacer una donación en nuestra página del internet o enviarnos un cheque y así apoyar el trabajo de IFCO a favor de la justicia social?
A special Message from Gail Walker and Father Luis Barrios
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September 29, 2011
Dear Friends,
The past year has been a busy and hectic one for us here at IFCO. September marked the one year anniversary of the death of our visionary founding director Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr. While it has been a very challenging time for our organization and our work, in the spirit of Lucius and thanks to your continuous support, we have persevered. Read more >
