Cuba honors medical brigade nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.

247 - With the feeling that 'this is where it is', 'it's up to me' and 'they are mine', the Cuban doctors of the Henry Reeve Brigade return from Italy, where they went just over two months ago to put their hands on the pain and exchange it for help and survival in the hecatomb that the coronavirus sought to transform the already battered balance of the world into, writes Madeleine Sautié in Granma.

"If, for certain beings, it is enough to be safe from evil, to have the sky as their only roof, or from the abyss imposed by social inequities; if being happy for them boils down to their own well-being and the misfortune of others doesn't matter, this is not the case for Cuban doctors." 

They leave a trail of love wherever they go, and they even find in the underprivileged a greenness that invalidates the trickery of fate. They go where healing is most difficult and necessary, and they are where others didn't want to stain their white clothes. 

They have the simple honor of being the only ones that many of these unfortunate "nobodies" have ever seen, of having given them the miracle of survival, even when the illness they suffered was curable. And they have the blessed habit of looking at the sick, of knowing how to listen to them in another language, of touching them where it hurts, of surprising them with warm and friendly treatment, of restoring, when lost, the hope of remaining alive.

Those who particularly inspire these lines went to Lombardy in the days when the pandemic had only recently arrived in our country, and when Cuba seemed stunned by the desolate images from Italy and Spain that the media showed. Filled with doubt and uncertainty at living through an unprecedented scene, although confident in the efficiency of the Cuban health system, the news arriving from those distant lands became frequent and pained our hearts.

Accustomed as we are to knowing that Cuba is always in those places where assistance is urgently needed, we are not surprised that, in response to the call from the northern region of Italy, facing a shortage of personnel to combat Covid-19 there, the Henry Reeve Brigade – which defeated Ebola in Africa, to mention its most recent feats – set out to stifle death with all its love and readiness. 

When neighbors with shared destinies "closed" their doors to prevent the spread of the virus, our steps were firm and, with the simplicity that comes from the ground in which they were formed, showed detachment and altruism.

Beyond the numbers – 36 doctors, 15 nurses and a logistics specialist; approximately 5.500 medical consultations, 3.668 nursing visits and 210 discharges handled by our professionals in those places – there is a four-letter mark that neither the people saved nor the world will ever forget, even when imperial vileness insists on discrediting our real heroes, those who, in the manner of José Martí, are simply good and because they feel an inner pleasure in doing something good.

Spread across the globe, more than 30 brigades, with over 2.500 healthcare professionals, are fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. The one returning to its homeland – the Henry Reeve Brigade – is filled with intense experiences where saving others is more important than risking one's own life.

It is no coincidence that international voices are today calling for the brigade that kisses the world to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The proposal is still to be verified, but there is another that cannot be ignored - the reward that distinguishes them for offering the best thing their country has: the stature of its humanism.

"The reward of their people's embrace awaits them." 

By Madeleine Sautié, in Granma