Australian film on East Timor’s doctors
On September 28, some sixty people gathered at Petersham Bowling Club to enjoy a screening of two documentaries offering a rare insight into how an innovative collaboration between Cuba and East Timor is enabling drastic improvements to the health of some of our nearest neighbours.
The two films, made by Dr Tim Anderson of the University of Sydney, look at a groundbreaking program in which Cuba is sharing its renowned medical expertise with the peoples of East Timor and the South Pacific. Since 2003, Cuba has provided 1,000 scholarships for medical students from this region to complete their training as doctors in Cuba, before returning to their home countries to practice.
“It’s the biggest health program in the world, outside of Latin America”, says Dr Anderson. Incredibly, Anderson reports that when the program began, there were 36 Timorese doctors in the whole country, alongside medical staff from overseas.
The films tell the story through the voices of the students themselves, as they complete their studies in Cuba. Their vivid words and passionate resolve to serve their people convey in direct, human terms the profound impact of the program on their lives. Anderson began to make the films while on a visit to Cuba in 2007, as a way for the students – who couldn’t afford to return home until they finished their studies – to communicate about their lives in Cuba to their families back home.
The first film, The Doctors of Tomorrow, follows the initial group of 700 students from East Timor and the island nation Kiribati, who took up the scholarships starting in 2003. The second film, the Pacific School of Medicine, was made after the scholarships were expanded in 2008 to take in candidates from across the South Pacific, including Tuvalu, Nauru, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. We meet many of these students, and also hear from the first cohort, who warmly welcome them. “We are happy they are here. Although we come from different countries, we share one ocean, the South Pacific, that’s something we have in common,” says Kiarere Tiaon from Kiribati.
The night was rounded out with a ‘sneak peek’ at excerpts of an upcoming third film, which features the first group of 700 students, who recently graduated at a ceremony in Dili, and who will now begin to transform their nation’s medical system.
The screening was presented by the Inner West Film Fanatics, who host monthly screenings at the community-run venue, the Petersham Bowling Club. More information at: thepbc.org.au
By Annette Maguire
