Next group of Pakistani students starts leaving Cuba for Medical education

ISLAMABAD, Next batch of Pakistani students who have been selected by Higher Education Commission for medical study has started leaving Cuba.

A spokesman of Cuban embassy here said the second group of 644 Pakistani students should arrive in Cuba in the course of next weeks, joining the other 330 Pakistani students who are already in Cuba for last one year.

Cuban Embassy in Pakistan has arranged different meetings with the second group of Pakistani students who have been selected for Medicine Scholarships in Cuba.

The Embassy has held three meetings with groups of Pakistani students who were selected to study Medicine in Cuba, said a spokesman of Cuban embassy.

The spokesman said these students are part of the 1000 free of charge-scholarships granted by the Cuban government to Pakistan after the devastating earthquake that affected the country in October, 2005.

These meetings took place in the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and organized by the Cuban Embassy with the cooperation Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), he added.

The Cuban embassy spokesman said main objective of these exchanges was to offer the students a general background about Cuba, the achievements that Cuba has reached in the spheres of education and health, as well as to provide them information related to living and studying conditions that the Cuban government provides to all the foreign students.

This is the first time Cuba is going to host Muslim students and Cuba wants to offer the Pakistani students the best of the environments.

The embassy spokesman said among this, Halal food will be guaranteed as part of the efforts and it will be imported and properly certified.

He said besides other arrangements that have been made to welcome the Pakistani students in Cuba, the school will have appropriate places to pray according to the Muslim traditions.

He said Pakistani students will receive in Cuba a high level education, recognized by the WHO and related international organizations.

Cuba is very well known around the world for its Human Development Indicators, among the first in the world, mainly in the sectors of education, health, culture, sport, among others.

On February 2006, Cuba offered to the government of Pakistan 1000 fully funded scholarships for young Pakistanis to study Medicine in Cuba.

The selection process has been carried out by the HEC under the guidance and instructions of the Pakistani government. The Embassy of Cuba and the HEC have stayed in permanent contact in connection with this process.

The international collaboration of Cuba is quite wide, and there are 29,000 Cuban professionals providing assistance to more than 60 countries, mostly in Latin America and African nations.

Nowadays, 27,500 foreign students coming from 120 countries are studying in Cuba, out of them 21 000 study Medicine.