 December 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 12 |
 Airlift delegation members board the massive C-5 Galaxy at Andrews Air Force Base to accompany donated medicines and medical supplies to Uzbekistan. Midair refueling over Scotland made the flight nonstop. |
 A dancing Uzbek orphan charms airlift delegation members at the Kibry Baby Orphanage in Tashkent. |
 An Uzbek physician is tested on her mastery of ALSO techniques by an Uzbek ALSO instructor during the final day of the second provider course. |
"I must admit that an airplane hangar is an unusual venue for a ceremony," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage observed during his keynote at the Oct. 24 celebration marking the 10th anniversary Physicians With Heart humanitarian airlift to a former Soviet republic.
The event occurred at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, takeoff point for the airlift of nearly $10 million (U.S. wholesale value) of donated medicines and medical supplies to Uzbekistan. It was the second such airlift to that country. A delegation of nearly 50 volunteers, including many family physicians, accompanied the supplies, fanned out across Uzbekistan to document arrival of the supplies and gave medical education presentations for Uzbek physicians.
It was the 10th time that AAFP has joined with the AAFP Foundation and Heart to Heart International, a humanitarian aid organization, to sponsor an airlift to a former Soviet republic. In his remarks, Armitage noted that Physicians With Heart has some personal meaning for him.
"About 10 years ago, when Physicians With Heart and Heart to Heart International first started these airlifts, I was serving as coordinator for assistance to the commonwealth of independent states," he said, referring to the former Soviet republics. "So in a sense, I guess you could say I've come full circle."
After the ceremony, the airlift delegation boarded an Air Force C-5 Galaxy, the largest cargo jet in the United States, and for the first time accompanied the donated cargo overseas. The products filled the C-5's vast hold.
Another "first": The AAFP's Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics program was presented in Uzbekistan as part of the airlift project. Volunteer North American faculty taught the ALSO Provider and Instructor courses to a group of top OB-Gyns from throughout Uzbekistan. While initially skeptical, the Uzbek doctors "caught the ALSO bug," said Chip Taylor, M.D., of Fairfax, Va., who headed the ALSO faculty in Uzbekistan.
The Uzbek OB-Gyns then taught the ALSO Provider Course to another group of Uzbek physicians, under the guidance of the American faculty. If the Uzbek Ministry of Health develops a plan and secures grants for disseminating ALSO training further, many more Uzbek physicians and patients may benefit.
Four orphanages and schools -- a record number -- received help through the airlift's "children's project." Delegation members visited the facilities, leaving behind much-needed supplies and gifts -- as well as their hearts.
Finally, delegation members were in a sense ambassadors for America. Last year, after Sept. 11, the State Department called Heart to Heart right away, said Gary Morsch, M.D., the organization's president and founder. "They said, 'Heart to Heart and Physicians With Heart have been involved in Uzbekistan more than about anybody, and we would like to ask you to consider increasing your presence there to enhance the goodwill between Uzbekistan and the United States.'"
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AAFP Vice President for International and Interprofessional Activities Daniel Ostergaard, M.D., traveled with one delegation team to southern Uzbekistan and visited informally with U.S. soldiers stationed there. "They were glad to see us," Ostergaard said. "And it became so evident that this time, what Physicians With Heart did in Uzbekistan markedly enhanced the receptivity of the Uzbek people to the American presence necessitated by 9/11."
When delegation leaders met with U.S. Ambassador John Herbst Oct. 31 in Tashkent, "he just couldn't say enough about the airlift -- not just the aid, but the fact that the delegation came along," said AAFP Past President Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis.
He added, "When I talked to Uzbeks and told them that these delegates paid their own way, took their own holidays and vacations to come here, they just couldn't believe it."
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Copyright © 2002 by
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