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Cuba proves size doesn't matter on the world aid front

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Tom Fawthrop

More than two months after the earthquake that killed almost 6,000 people on Java, much of the world's international relief effort has wound down. An army of medics from countries including Italy, Japan, Poland and Pakistan have long returned home.

But among the ruins of 100,000 homes, a team of doctors from one small Caribbean country is labouring to support the estimated 650,000 people affected by the quake in May.

They are members of the Gantiwarno Cuban field hospital and they represent the human face of a vast commitment the tiny communist island has made to the humanitarian effort in the wake of many of the world's disasters.

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In Java, this most recent medical deployment is the last hope for many Indonesians who have basic access to the scant primary heath-care services. The medical village of tarpaulin tents represents a fully equipped field hospital with X-ray, laboratory analysis and surgery and other essential facilities.

Despite hailing from a poor, politically isolated country, most of the Cuban medical team has had experience in Asia - two Cuban teams were deployed to help tsunami victims, one in Aceh and the other in Sri Lanka.

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Many of the doctors now in Indonesia were deployed in Pakistan Kashmir after the earthquake in October last year. The Gantiwarno Cuban field hospital is in an earthquake zone about 30km from Jogyakarta, a site still bearing the scars of the disaster. In Prambanan field hospital, Dr Luis Sandoval has few problems understanding the patients. Communication is good thanks to the translators - a band of volunteer interpreters, many of them Indonesian medical students.

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