Smiles in Cuba and the Ukraine

Twenty years ago, in several facilities at Tarara, Cuba, a marvellous program of specialized medical attention was begun for youngsters affected by the Chernobyl electronuclear plant accident. To this date, more than 20,000 Ukrainian patients have benefited from this program and hundreds, not necessarily related to the catastrophe, are attended by Cuban specialists and paramedics.

"In these twenty years I have felt so many strong emotions that it feels as if I′ve spent my whole life here", Esteban Gómez told us. Gómez is director of Villa Amistad (Friendship Villa), a medical-lodging complex at Tarara Beach, 15 km east of Havana.

That′s how Gómez started our conversation about the twentieth anniversary of the joint Cuba-Ukraine program for medical attention to children affected by the catastrophe at the electronuclear plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine.

In the beginning, I saw lots of orphans arriving in a semi-vegetative state. Most of them in wheelchairs and some even on stretchers, with lifeless faces and a total absence of smiles that made a huge impression on us and demanded a great deal of dedication from the specialized medical staff and from all the people supporting their work.

How much satisfaction in two decades? An enormous amount. I′m a teacher and I came to this villa when it was still the former summer camp for Cuban school students. I was 18 and now I am 48 years old. I know what it is to work with children, but, it was working in this program that I reached my real potential.