Mafikeng - Fifteen North West students will be given a big send-off in Mmabatho on Thursday before flying to Cuba to study medicine.
MEC for Health and Social Development Rebecca Kasienyane is expected to address the students, who leave at the end of October after being recruited as part of the South African-Cuban medical scholarship programme.
"They will stay in Cuba for a month of orientation and then come back to spend the Christmas holidays with their families, before going back in February to start their studies," said department spokesman Tebogo Lekgethwane on Wednesday.
One of the challenges the students will face is learning Spanish to keep up in class.
Lekgethwane said the selection process was highly competitive, with only the 15 brightest students chosen from 470 applicants. All the recruits come from impoverished areas and had the marks necessary to enter medical school.
They also had to have a history of active involvement in their communities because they will be expected to work in the province's poorest communities for a certain number of years once they graduate.
Lekgethwane said five students came from the Dr Segomotsi Mompati district, four from the Ngaka Modiri Molema district and three each from the Bojanala and Dr Kenneth Kaunda districts.
He said the students underwent a week-long orientation exercise at health facilities in Bojanala last week to familiarise them with medical practice and hear perspectives from some of their predecessors, who are now practising medicine in the area.
The programme started in 1998 as part of the government's efforts to address the critical shortage of medical professionals in the country.
