Cuba marks 40 years of scholarships to third world students

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 12 (ACN) Personalities and former students from Ethiopia, Namibia, Ghana and Nicaragua praised the internationalist education program launched on Isle of Youth 40 years ago on the initiative of Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro.

The commemorative event, held at the Memorial El Pinero Square, was used to review the initial phase of the project at the end of 1977, when the first youngsters from Mozambique arrived in the special municipality, to later reach at the same time more than 35 thousand students of 33 nationalities from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Internationalist education for its role in the development of human capacity under the Marti philosophy of "being educated to be free" is the dream fulfilled by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, said Jerobean Shaanika, ambassador of the Republic of Namibia to Cuba.

Let me pay tribute to the historic leader of the Revolution of this country, the youngest of the planet, but who wrote glorious pages helping us to break the chains of oppression in Africa and replaced it with human chains of solidarity, said the diplomat.

Edgar Zapata - one of the more than 25,000 Nicaraguans who studied there since 1979 - and Clifford Segborwotso of the Republic of Ghana thanked, on behalf of their respective compatriots, the idea of this social project that liberated them from ignorance and he provided them with a profession.

Representatives of Ethiopia, Namibia, Ghana and Nicaragua raised their voices during the act against the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba since the beginning of the 1960s.

Presiding the celebration were Ernesto Reinoso, first secretary of the Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba in the Island of the Youth; Arelys Casañola, president of the Municipal Assembly of People's Power, and José Prieto, Africa director of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples.