Originally printed in the Cornell Alumni Magazine, March/April 2004.
Behind the Veil
Mary Skarie makes her home in Kazakhstan, a remote corner of the world that is famous for the Silk Road, Islamic art, and Mongol conquerors. But the Cornell-trained nurse isn't concerned with Central Asia's relics of the past. She's trying to solve a modern problem: since the collapse of the Soviet Union, most people in the region either can't afford or don't have access to health care.
Skarie, a Minnesota native, works with Quality Primary Health Care, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) campaign that targets the five former Soviet republics neighboring Afghanistan. In winter 2002, the organization sponsored a competition between local clinic nurses to help families recognize the symptoms of acute respiratory infection and know when to seek treatment. "In this part of the world, people are not expected to know much about self care," says Skarie. "They are surprised when nurses provide health information and expect them to understand and apply these lessons in caring for their families." Other projects have included a program to teach midwives in Kyrgyzstan how to provide birth control, and family medicine retraining for primary physicians.
Since USAID stationed the specialist in public health management
in the region three-and-a-half years
ago, Skarie estimates that close to fifteen million people have benefited
from the campaign's efforts. Though
based in Kazakhstan, the public
health nurse visits hospitals and clinics throughout Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. "We
also focus on community education
about the right to choose a doctor
and the right to privacy," says Skarie. "In America we take our rights for
granted. But these are new ideas in
countries that are not democracies."
- Lauren McSherry '02
Reprinted with Permission
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