THE
STRUGGLE
TO BUILD
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moznmBiqu
A summary from the Health Conference's Communique
The First Conference or me Health Services was held from 16 February to 2
March, 1973. It was attended by about
80 delegates, including members of the
Central Committee and Executive Committee and health cadres posted in the
fighting provinces and in the FRELIMO
centres outside the country.
Comrade Samora Machel, the President
of FRELIMO, presided over the work of
the opening and closing sessions, giving
the basic guiding lines to the meeting.
The agenda adopted by the Conference
was as follows:
1. Critical examination of the reports
on the health activities in the different
sectors from the point of view of adherence to FRELIMO's political line and
of efficiency.
2. Examination of the working methods   and   structures   which  will  best
enable the health services to adequately
meet the requirements of each phase of
our struggle.
3. Examination of the programme for
training and raising the political and
scientific level of health cadres.
4. Future prospects.
The Conference noted that considerable
progress had been made in the health
services. In fact, it was found that most
of the cadres in these services are conscious and apply the principle that in the
relationship between politics and technique, politics comes first. In the past, lack
of understanding of this point gave rise
to purely administrative attitudes and
behaviour among health cadres, which
made it difficult for them to communicate with the masses. Without the
people's support and co-operation, the
health services found it difficult to dc
their work within the framework of the
popular and revolutionary struggle we are
waging. Now there is proper understanding of the political role of the health
services, the main preoccupation of our
comrades in the health services being
to cultivate love for the masses with whom
they are in direct contact and among
whom they represent our movement and
political line.
technical and scientific advances
The Conference also noted an advance
from the technical point of view and recommended that more efforts be made in
this respect.    In fact, side by side with
political action, the people's confidence
in our health services and their rejection
of superstition and other negative aspects
of tradition depends on whether or not
our comrades are able to cure their illnesses. A constant campaign should
therefore be underway to raise the level
of technical and scientific knowledge of
personnel in these services.
Dealing with another aspect, the conference stressed that the health services,
oecause they are a field which by the
very nature of the work deals with human lives and health, require a high degree of organisation. In our particular
case such organisation is vital because it
makes it possible at least to lessen the
effects of the technical shortcomings we
face. Constant attention should therefore be given to the consolidation and
proper functioning of the health structures to ensure that they always fully
cover all the zones under FRELIMO
control, that is, that they provide medical care for the most advanced base, the
most remote village.
The Conference supported the programmes underway to combat the shortage of
health cadres and to raise their level, such
as the holding of special courses to train
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