Latin American School of Medicine Scholarship (ELAM)
The Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) is a six-year, full-scholarship program that trains students from over 120 countries in the skills & expertise to become revolutionary doctors. Our doctors are overwhelmingly BIPOC working in their communities all over the US. ELAM is the largest medical school in the world and part of Cuba’s anti-racist solidarity with the peoples of the world.
Since 2001, almost 300 United States Citizens have received full scholarships to study at ELAM. Award of the scholarship comes with only one condition: the medical graduates are required to return and serve their communities, prioritizing the most underserved and under-resourced populations. U.S. ELAM graduates are working in over 30 states across the country.
IFCO Pastors for Peace is the sole facilitator in the US of the Scholarship Program to Study Medicine at ELAM.
ELAM was conceived by President Fidel Castro November 15, 1999. Since 1999, IFCO has been working with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), organizing Congressional delegations to visit Cuba. It was during one of these delegations in May 2000 that Cuban medical school scholarships were first offered to US students. On September 9, 2000, President Castro speaking at Riverside Church in NY, publicly offered 500 scholarships and Rev. Lucius Walker, the Founder of IFCO, who shared a Friendship with President Castro accepted the challenge of recruiting the best from our underrepresented communities to study medicine on a full scholarship. IFCO Pastors for Peace has facilitated the ELAM US scholarship ever since.
application deadline march 15
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application deadline march 15 〰️
FISCAL SPONSORSHIPS
The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) is proud to invite grassroots progressive organizations and projects to utilize our fiscal sponsorship services. Our Fiscal Sponsorship program provides administrative and financial support to mission-aligned projects, allowing them to operate under our 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status without the burden of starting their own nonprofit. Through this partnership, we handle grant management, tax compliance, and financial reporting, so you can focus on making an impact. Whether you’re launching a new initiative or expanding an existing project, our sponsorship ensures credibility, compliance, and access to tax-deductible funding opportunities.
Pastors for peace
Friendshipment caravans
Since 1992, IFCO/Pastors for Peace has organized 31 Friendshipment Caravans to Cuba as challenges to the US government’s economic blockade. These caravans have taken valuable humanitarian aid to Cuba but more importantly have helped demonstrate to the Cuban people that they are not alone and that they have allies even in the ‘belly of the beast’ in the US.
Our Friendshipment Caravans have also played an important role in making dents in the blockade. We successfully resisted the Bush administration’s attempts to fully criminalize travel to Cuba, and our work was part of the backdrop to the Obama administration’s partial normalization of relations with Cuba. Now we are actively resisting the re-tightening of the blockade by Trump, which the Biden administration has so far continued.
