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Regions Cuba

Cuba's model for health care and what it meant for the world made it a big attraction for Atlantic.

Atlantic’s interest in improving health care through prevention, primary care and community outreach led the foundation to Cuba. Although considered one of the best in the world, Cuba’s health care system was under stress in the early 2000s from a lack of resources. Atlantic knew that by working in Cuba it would learn a great deal about effective patient-centered care—lessons that would inform its health care work globally and that could be shared with other countries.

Atlantic’s investments in Cuba totaled over $66 million. The majority supported organizations working to better health outcomes by improving care and treatment for Cubans or spreading knowledge about its effective public health practices, especially to nations with impoverished and underserved communities. Some investments also funded work to help normalize relations between Cuba and the United States.

Watch: Big problems need big solutions, sparked by big ideas, imagination and audacity. In this talk, journalist Gail Reed profiles one big solution worth noting: Havana’s Latin American Medical School, which trains global physicians to serve the local communities that need them most.

From 2002-2015, Atlantic invested over $66m in Cuba, mainly to improve health outcomes and share Cuba's primary health care model globally.

The Atlantic Charitable Trust of England and Wales provided the majority of this funding.

99% of Cubans have a relationship with a primary care doctor

1st nation to send hundreds of doctors to help fight Ebola

2nd highest doctor-to-patient ratio in the world

More About Our Work in Cuba