In a historic development for Hadassah International, 15 Latin American (LATAM) Ambassadors in Israel held the first meeting of the recently created Hadassah Health LATAM Ambassadors Forum. This Forum is a result of the successful ongoing medical collaborations organized by Hadassah International and the Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) in individual countries in the region. The initiative aims to foster a regional approach and help to further develop these collaborations with HMO.
Ambassadors representing most of the LATAM countries attended this special event hosted by the Argentinian Ambassador to Israel, Sergio Daniel Urribarri, including the Ambassadors from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, The Dominican Republic, and Uruguay.
Historically, Hadassah International (HI) has been actively engaged in leveraging the medical expertise of the Hadassah hospitals to help foster a special relationship between Latin America and the State of Israel. In these extraordinary times, this initiative is a high priority as unfortunately the COVID-19 crisis is expected to still represent an ongoing challenge for Latin America for quite a long time.
The HI team, led by Jorge Diener, HI Executive Director, facilitated this meeting as part of Hadassah International’s mission to build bridges at multiple levels between Hadassah and South American and Central American countries.
The Ambassadors’ meeting concluded with a resolution whereby all the participating embassies, representing their respective countries, will invite the Secretaries/Ministers of Health of their own country to an initial Virtual Conference to be held in the near future.
Jorge Diener, HI Executive Director, stressed at the meeting that “now that Israel is getting close to the point of winning the battle over COVID-19, it is our responsibility to share our experience and to help other parts of the world where the end of the struggle is farther down the road. HMO, at the frontline of this battle in Israel, can continue to be a source for solutions and support.”
Sergio Uribarri, Argentinean ambassador to Israel and the host of the event, expressed his belief that “together we can do more than what each of us can do alone. And if there is an institution that can help us with this health emergency, clearly it is Hadassah”.
In parallel to the Ambassadors’ Forum, Hadassah International has also created a Latin American (LATAM) Advisory Committee of influential leaders in the region led by Rafael Zaga, Chairman of Hadassah Mexico and a member of the HI Board of Directors. The Committee is comprised of representatives of the Jewish community leadership of Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina. The goal of this Advisory Committee is to create a special relationship with the Hadassah hospitals within each of their countries.