Subject: Re: Question_ Patricia Blair, M.D.
From: Sofia Gegechkori <[email-masked]>
To: Tamar Tchelidze <[email-masked]>
Cc: Maia Nikoleishvili <[email-masked]>, Sopo Belkania <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2018 18:26:17 +0000

მადლობა, თაკო, დიდი ოპერატიული გამოხმაურებისათვის!

სამინისტროში პიარსაც გავუგზავნე შეტყობინება, მაგრამ მას ამ ქალის საქმიანობა მანდ არ ეცოდინება.

სალამი მაია, სოფო -- თუ დახმარებას შეძლებთ, ძალიან დაგვავალებთ. კარგი იქნება თუ სამინისტროში მისი ნაცნობები დაგვეხმარებიან რომ რეკომენდაცია გაუწიონ მინისტრის მოადგილის დონეზე მაინც სამძიმრის წერილის დასაწერად. თუ არის ამის შესაძლებლობა გვირჩიეთ.

მადლობას გიხდით წინასწარ ყურადღებისათვის!

პატივისცემით,

სოფო გეგეჭკორი

Sofia Gegechkori

Public Affairs / Communications Counselor

Office: 202-387-2390 ext.614 / Cell: 202-853-8304

Embassy of Georgia to the United States

1824
R Street NW, Washington DC, 20009

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 22, 2018, at 9:31 AM, Tamar Tchelidze <[email-masked]> wrote:

Sopo mai rogor xart? Xom ar shegidlziat mogvexmarot? Ix. Tserili kvemot. Dzalian short notice aris magram am kals bevri icnobda chventan misi sakmianobidan gamomdinare.

didi maldoba tanadgomiatvis. Tako

Get Outlook for iOS

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: "Sofia Gegechkori" <[email-masked]>

Date: Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 5:23 PM -0500

Subject: Question_ Patricia Blair, M.D.

To: "Tamar Tchelidze" <[email-masked]>

Cc: "Mariam Tarasashvili" <[email-masked]>, "David Bakradze"
<[email-masked]>

თაკო პრივეტები -- შენ ხომ არ იცი შემთხვევით ვინ შეიძლება იცნობდეს ამ ორგანიზაციას ჯანდაცვაში რომ სამძიმრის წერილი გაამზადოს საქართველოში 90იანებში მომუშავე
ჯანდაცვითი საქველმოქმედო ორგანიზაციის დამფუძნებლის პასივსაგებად?

დაგვირეკეს და გვთხოვეს, ორბიჩუარის ვანზადებთ და საქ-დან ვინმე ხომ არ დაწერს სამძიმრის ორ სიტყვასო..

შეგიძლია გვირჩიო ვინმე?

მადლობა წინასწარ,

სოფო

From: Shearon, Dolores [mailto:[email-masked]]

Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2018 4:47 PM

To: Sofia Gegechkori <[email-masked]>

Subject: Patricia Blair, M.D.

Dear Ms. Gegechkori,

Thank you for speaking with me on the phone this afternoon. I would appreciate your help in paying tribute to Dr. Patricia J. Blair, founder and president of A Call To Serve (ACTS) International,
who died Nov. 18 after suffering with cancer for two years.

We ask your assistance in obtaining a statement from someone in the Georgian government, at as high a level as possible, to pay tribute to Dr. Blair and her accomplishments with ACTS International.
She was a champion and angel for Georgia before others even knew of the dire circumstances there following the break-up of the Soviet Union. She knew several previous Georgian presidents and high-ranking officials on a personal basis and was greatly respected
and valued by your government.

Contacts in Georgia for our ACTS Georgia chapter officers:

Giorgi Tsilosani, M.D., Ph.D., president, ACTS Georgia:  [email-masked]

Guram Amiridze, M.D., vice president, ACTS Georgia: 0117
740 5090

Other volunteers who can reach one of these officers:

Eteri Suladze - [email-masked]

Lika Ushveridze -
[email-masked]

The ACTS Georgia staff also is working with the Ministry of Health and possibly others to obtain a quote or quotes about Dr. Blair.

The ACTS URL is
acalltoserve.org, but please be aware that we have not had a staff person to maintain the website in some time. On Facebook, our URL is
facebook.com/ACTS.International.

Below is some pertinent information about Dr. Blair. I can be reached at 573-864-4769 or at this email address.

Dolores Shearon

Board of Directors

A Call To Serve International

[email-masked]

Patricia J. Blair and ACTS International

While serving on the faculty at Stanford University and working as a trauma surgeon for Kaiser Permanente in California in the 1980s, Dr. Blair visited Georgia and other Soviet republics as part
of a medical delegation responding to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and Armenian earthquake.
Over the next few years, she made return trips to several of those countries to provide medical support, but one place, and its people, stole her heart – Georgia.

In 1989 she helped Georgian colleagues establish the Georgian Medical Association, the first physician organization of its kind in the Soviet
Union. She was named an honorary member.  In 1991 she received an urgent fax from Georgian Medical Association physicians saying the Russians had pulled out of Georgia and stripped their hospitals bare of equipment and supplies. They feared their patients
would die and asked if she could help. With support from the California Air National Guard and other groups, she organized more than 50 airlifts to meet those urgent needs.

In 1992, she founded ACTS International in Mountain View, Calif., as the first American non-governmental organization working in the country of Georgia. She took a
leave of absence from her job and spent the next four years on the ground in Georgia, organizing programs and structure to receive and deliver aid and developing partnerships. ACTS-Georgia, the organization’s in-country chapter, was established as Georgia's
first nonprofit humanitarian aid organization, with a goal of institutional capacity building and enabling Georgians to help Georgians.

In 1994, the Georgian Parliament awarded a letter of commendation to the ACTS-Georgia team for “Service to the Nation.” A sister-city relationship was formed between
Kutaisi and Columbia, Missouri, that resulted in sister university and medical, dental and nursing school agreements. Several delegations from each country visited the other as part of medical, educational and cultural exchanges. Because of ACTS' work, the
specialty of neonatalogy was introduced to Georgia, and a University of Missouri physician taught Georgian ophthalmologists to begin performing corneal transplants.

In the 2000s, with grants from the U.S. State Department and other agencies along with local contributions, ACTS has provided training and support for medical, public
health and education programs. For two decades, more than $10 million annually in medical and food aid was obtained, shipped and distributed to more than 100,000 vulnerable Georgians.

From 2001-2005, Columbia, Missouri, residents participated in drives to supply Kutaisi children with much-needed iodized salt because many were suffering from development
problems and medical issues such as goiters due to the unavailability of dietary iodine at a price affordable to Georgian families.

A $1.1 million, five-year grant awarded in 2004 by USAID helped ACTS identify and address causes of high child mortality rates in Georgia. The information learned is
still being applied today as ACTS-affiliated physicians in Tbilisi train physicians, nurses and midwives in poverty-stricken Kvemo Kartli in resuscitating and stabilizing newborns that are struggling to breathe.

Dr. Blair was in Georgia during the Russia invasion in 2008 and, as a trauma surgeon, personally attended to injured patients. She organized airlifts and sea container
shipments with humanitarian aid, medications, food, hygiene kits and donated hospital equipment for the post-war relief recovery efforts. She also worked with Rotarians to create an art therapy program for children affected by the horrors of war.

Also ongoing is the ACTS-Lions Ronald James, M.D., Georgian Diabetic Children's Camp, which was established in 1996 and will move to its new permanent home in Dmanisi
in 2019. The camp was founded by Dr. Blair and University of Missouri pediatric endocrinologist Ron James after they learned Georgian children diagnosed with Type I diabetes lived only 10 years on average. Since the camp opened, more than 1,200 young people
have participated, and all are still alive and thriving, many as young adults with families of their own.

ACTS has transported more than $350 million in donated medications and medical supplies to Georgia. These efforts have made 4.3 million imprints on lives helped with
food, hygiene kits and medical care, as well as the 220,000 children who have received new shoes, Dr. Blair led the introduction of both Rotary International and Lions International civic clubs in Georgia.