Havana Cuba Travel, Varadero Cuba Vacation, Cuba Information

Sergio Corrieri, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) gave the official welcome to the members of the 14th contingent of the South American Brigade of Solidarity with Cuba.

The Julio Antonio Mella International Camp in Caimito, west of the province of Havana, was the host of the meeting that allowed the exchange of Corrieri with more than 350 brigade members.

Students, mostly from Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Costa Rica are forming this group of visitors to share relevant achievements of the Cuban Revolution such as education and public health.

For many of them this is the first time they visit the island and they come with many questions.

To share agricultural work, visit some political, historical, social and economic interesting places are some of the activities they will develop in Cuba until January 28.

Important benefits regarding the multidisciplinary attention and favoring social reinsertion of the handicapped are among the more than 100 programs of the Revolution implemented in Cuba..

Contributing to that objective are the improvement of primary health assistance, social security and the use of audiovisual aids to educate and rehabilitate, including the development of work skills for those intellectually challenged.

Result of that national priority and in coordination with the Basque government and the NGO Doctors of the World, the project to strengthen assistance to people with intellectual disabilities in the Santiago Province is beginning to demonstrate its advances.

Psychologist Maribel Sanchez, expert of the Amarica Lavadi Psycho-pedagogical Medical Center, explained they are working on the remodeling of the institution in the Antonio Maceo residential area in that eastern province.

The center caters to children, youth and adults, 120 of whom live in the center and another 40 attend the institution to receive the specialized assistance and then return home.

Similarly, they initiate activities to raise the community s awareness toward that sector of the population and to provide a major support in their social reinsertion in schools, work centers and social-cultural places.

More than 4,000 Panamanians received free ophthalmologic surgery in Cuba in 2006 as part of Operation Miracle, La Estrella daily of Panama headlined Tuesday.

Of the total number of patients reported by the newspaper, 2,316 were treated for cataracts, 263 for strabismus, 1,336 for pterygium, 107 for ptosis and nine for retinitis pigmentaria.

One trip a week was made last year, 46 trips to the island in all, with an average 120 passengers, including patients and companions.

The objective is to cure 12,000 people of limited resources in the next four years, according to the newspaper.

The Health Ministry announced that the program will be resumed at the end of January, suspended temporally for the new year celebrations.

At that time 700 patients will be moved to Cuba for surgeries for cataracts, strabismus, ptrgium (illness of the conjunctiva and cornea) and ptosis palpebrales (congenital drooping eyelid).

The Contemporary Journalists Association of Turkey announced its decision Tuesday to award Cuban President Fidel Castro its annual Special Honor Prize.

The entity s executive committee said the prize was given to the Cuban president for “carrying the flag against imperialism, his constant, decisive struggle against colonialism, and efforts in favor of democracy and independence.”

The declaration was signed by the 42 members of the association s executive council, which includes the most outstanding representatives of Turkey s press media, the Cuban Embassy in Turkey said in a press report..

The award will be granted during a ceremony in February, the source added.

Representatives of at least 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries are attending in this capital the First Latin American Beekeeper Meeting and the Cuban congress of that specialty.

Regional technicians, specialists, and businesspeople will meet until Friday on market issues and chemical pollution of honeycomb areas, Cuban Beekeeper Association (SAC) President Martha Vazquez Luaces said.

She also said other issues of interest are related to improvement of quality, diversification of products, and propositions to create the Latin American Apiarist Society, which will contribute to integration of its members.

International Apiculture Society Federation (APIMONDIA) President Theodore Cherbulies will give the first lecture of the event, which includes the National Festival about honey, to be held on Friday at the Agricultural Fair venue in Boyeros, a municipality of this capital.

Cuba uses honey in hospitals, and propolios in therapies for scar tissue formation on wounds or burns.

The Island achieved its largest production since 1990 in 2006, and those products are mainly exported to Europe.