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• 10 / 10 / 2008

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The program is sponsored by Cuba and headed in Barbados by Dr Maritza Miquele, former head of the Ophthalmology Department at the Pando Ferrer Hospital in Havana.

Afaret pointed out that the offering of treating patients with eye problems for free have had a great repercussion in this Lesser antilles nation,with over 271,000 inhabitants and where many people have shown interest into receiving the service.

Operation Miracle began as a cooperation initiative between Cuba and Venezuela in July 2004, and would later spread across Latin America and the Caribbean. More than 1,100,000 people from 33 countries, not including Cuba, have benefited from the program, traveling either to Cuba or to one of 55 ophthalmologic centers located in other countries. Cuba has also donated 85 surgical facilities in 13 countries as part of the initiative.
    
(ACN)