BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Cuba has been warmly praised by the prime minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr Denzil Douglas, for what he described as its “generous and timely” health aid package for the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom).

The package, to come on stream from 2003, will have a concentration on Cuban expertise, including 1,000 health workers, supply of tools and equipment, as well as affordable medication to battle the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It will largely be funded by the Castro administration.

The killer disease has already reduced the Caribbean to having the highest infection rates in the Americas and Prime Minister Douglas said the aid package will be a “big boost” in Caricom’s fight against HIV/AIDS.

Another major feature of the Cuban assistance will be the establishment of a technical training school for nursing and other areas of medical sciences, to be located in one of the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

Prime Minister Douglas has lead responsibility among Caricom heads of government for health services, with special emphasis on combating HIV/AIDS. He was among the community’s heads of government who participated in the Caricom-Cuba Havana Summit with President Castro two weekends ago.

In a telephone interview from Bassettere last week, Douglas said that Caricom leaders “were very encouraged” by President Castro’s gesture of friendship in the quality and quantity of assistance forthcoming, particularly in his embrace of the Caribbean Regional Strategic Plan of Action for HIV/AIDS.

Considering its own financial and economic constraints, “Cuba’s aid package is indeed generous, most timely and most welcome”, said Prime Minister Douglas.

Cuba’s internationally-recognised successes in the delivery of health services and expertise acquired in fighting HIV/AIDS, said Douglas, make it a most appropriate source among developing nations of the world to provide the kind of assistance for Caricom, as offered by President Castro.

A committee of regional technocrats will be appointed shortly to examine the Cuban aid package and work with their Cuban colleagues to make the entire scheme operational.

This will include location of the proposed medical training school – possibly in St Vincent and the Grenadines or St Kitts and Nevis.

The school is expected to train, every year, up to 200 youth of the Caricom region in skills to provide services as health workers to HIV/AIDS patients.

Further details on Cuba’s aid, reflecting “the spirit” of the December 8 ‘Havana Declaration’ to mark the 30th anniversary of Cuba-Caricom diplomatic relations, are expected to be discussed at the forthcoming Inter-Sessional Meeting of the community’s heads of government in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in the latter half of February next year.

President Castro, in outlining the Cuban assistance programme, said his government will provide “free of charge”, no less than 30 per cent of the total value of the diagnostic equipment and kits produced in his country for the establishment of a network of laboratories to facilitate widescale testing of the population.

In the case of Haiti, President Castro said that considering its poverty, large population (approximately seven million) and the high rate of HIV/AIDS infection, Cuba would be prepared to share the costs with other donor countries by contributing up to 40 per cent of the total value of the diagnostic equipment and kits.