Eleven family physicians and 14 others in the Physicians With Heart delegation arrived about 2 a.m. in Baku, Azerbaijan – the main stop on the mission to bring $1.9 million worth (wholesale value) of donated medicine and medical supplies to Azeris.
Physicians With Heart Group Reaches Azerbaijan
October 8, 2000
Two boys visit the Martyrs' Park in Baku, where they'll leave flowers on their fathers' graves. The park commemorates Azerbaijanis who have died from political strife and warfare since 1990.
The country of 8 million people in southwest Asia, on the Caspian Sea, includes 1 million displaced people, refugees who will be among those to benefit from the aid. The project is the eighth annual airlift by Physicians With Heart to a former Soviet Republic. Physicians With Heart is cosponsored by the AAFP, the AAFP Foundation, and Heart to Heart International, a humanitarian aid organization based in Olathe, Kan.
"Each Physicians With Heart trip brings help to people much of the world doesn't know about," says Mary Lynass, M.D., of Scottsdale, Ariz., now on her second Physicians With Heart journey. "The people hear from us that there is someone out there who knows their situation, who remembers them. They are not invisible. We come to shake their hands and say we care. It's not just about the medicine."
"Each Physicians With Heart trip brings help to people much of the world doesn't know about," says Mary Lynass, M.D., of Scottsdale, Ariz., now on her second Physicians With Heart journey. "The people hear from us that there is someone out there who knows their situation, who remembers them. They are not invisible. We come to shake their hands and say we care. It's not just about the medicine."
An Azeri woman waits to sell her beans at Fountain Square, a Baku marketplace.
Fighting off sleep, the 25 delegates met this afternoon with representatives of nongovernmental organizations and learned of their work in health clinics and refugee camps. The delegates also learned about Section 907 of the U.S. Freedom Support Act of 1992. The act aims to encourage U.S. interface with former Soviet republics, but Section 907 bans direct U.S. government assistance to Azerbaijan … partly a result of U.S. sympathy with Armenia, Azerbaijan's neighbor and traditional foe.
Because of Section 907, Physicians With Heart will not deliver aid to government hospitals and agencies as it has in other countries but will work only with nongovernmental organizations. Physicians With Heart will help alleviate Azerbaijan's dearth of medical supplies and begin to introduce something that could improve care for the country as a whole: the concept of family practice.
Late this afternoon, delegates visited Martyr's Park, a cemetery and park, and a marketplace in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital.
Because of Section 907, Physicians With Heart will not deliver aid to government hospitals and agencies as it has in other countries but will work only with nongovernmental organizations. Physicians With Heart will help alleviate Azerbaijan's dearth of medical supplies and begin to introduce something that could improve care for the country as a whole: the concept of family practice.
Late this afternoon, delegates visited Martyr's Park, a cemetery and park, and a marketplace in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital.
Azerbaijan 2000
