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Free medical degree obtained in Cuba by an US young East Bay woman

A young East Bay woman is anxious to get started on her career in medicine, and she has Fidel Castro to thank for it. She was part of the first graduating class of American med students who studied in Cuba under a free, full-ride scholarship.

The offer was for a full six-year scholarship to the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba.

"I thought it was a great opportunity, almost too good to be true," says Kenya Bingham.

Twenty-nine-year-old Kenya Bingham eagerly seized the opportunity. Her only obligation was to return to the United States and practice medicine in an underserved community.

"It's a verbal oath. It's not anything that we signed, and it's written. It's kind of like your own conscience," explains Bingham. "Once you become a doctor and you haven't paid anything for it, I mean, there are expenses, but your actual tuition, room and board is free, and think that. Then you, you know, it's just humanity, you want to give back and try and change. That's why you're a doctor."

Her parents were just a little apprehensive about her studying in Cuba.

"There's a little fear of the unknown when she first chose the school, but we know she thought it out and she -- this is something she wanted to do, and it was a great opportunity. And that's the thing, it was a great opportunity for her," says Kathy Bingham, Kenya's mother.

"I was still excited because I know she's going to have a chance to fulfill her lifelong dream and we didn't have the money to send her to school in the U.S. and I was really excited about that," says Berresford Bingham, Kenya's father.

"I think it's totally terrific," says Professor Richard Scheffler.

Richard Scheffler, professor of medical economics at U.C. Berkeley's School of Public Health and head of the Petris Institute which studies health care issues, says the Cuban plan has potential.

"It's a bit embarrassing for the United States and I'm going to be very interested to see how good the medical training is in Cuba, in the sense of when these students come back, how difficult or easy it is for them to pass the licensing exam," explains Prof. Scheffler.

He also said we could be headed for a physician shortage and we need doctors like Kenya who commit to work where there aren't enough doctors.

"This is a systematic, dramatic problem. And everybody's aware of it, and there are enormous problems particularly in inner-city, poor areas, and certainly in rural areas as well," says Prof. Scheffler.

She came home during the summer. One summer she worked with Dr. Stephen Miller at Highland Hospital.

"She was already very motivated to make a difference where the difference made is the greatest. So she impressed me with her attitude, but she also had an eagerness to learn the details of the medicine," says Dr. Stephen Miller.

Representative Barbara Lee was instrumental in setting up the scholarship program and helped the students get over the State Department's travel restrictions to Cuba.

She has long promoted lifting the Cuban economic embargo and downplayed any propaganda value Fidel Castro may receive from training U.S. citizens to be doctors.

Rep. Barbara Lee: "Well, first of all it's not about Fidel Castro. It's not about propaganda. This is about teaching young people to be doctors."

Willie Monroe: "But you can't just discount the propaganda value."

Rep. Barbara Lee: "Well, I'm not even dealing with the propaganda value because when you look at our own country we have 47 million plus uninsured. That's pretty horrible propaganda, if you ask me, in the wealthiest most powerful country in the world. We need universal health care."

She also supports the Cuban experiment because she says many minority students are losing opportunities to study in California universities because of Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action measure.

Kenya Bingham said she avoided politics when she studied in Cuba and does not focus on the possibility she was being exploited as a political pawn in a propaganda skirmish.

"It did occur to me. It could be a possibility, however, I mean the fact of the matter is I'm a medical doctor now. I'm an M.D., and so that's neither here or there for me. I'm going to come back and I'm going to have patients and I'm going to help people get better and I'm actually going to do more preventive care to prevent disease and sickness," says Kenya Bingham.

Now she just has to pass the tests in this country that will enable her to continue to pursue her dream.

 


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