Tula benefits from Albany's helping hand

by Charlotte Buchanan

Reprinted from the Albany TIMES UNION
April 19, 1998 
Page B6

 

During a State Department briefing on her trip to the New Independent States formerly the Soviet Union, Hillary Rodham Clinton focused on the achievements made in their six years of existence. Many of those achievements resulted from public/private partnerships, such as the Albany-Tula Alliance.

"Economic and political stability in the NIS contributes directly to the security and prosperity of the United States and is being strengthened by a relatively modest assistance budget carefully targeted toward building grass-roots support behind economic and political reforms in each of the 12 states," Clinton told the session, which I attended.

When it was clear that the Soviet Union was falling apart in 1991, a number of Capital Region citizens assembled, determined to help one city and one region accomplish what our country has been working toward for more than 200 years. With he support of the city of Albany and then-Mayor Thomas Whalen III, we selected Tula, Russia, an area with similarities to ours.

Tula is the capital of the state of Tula, has a population of 600,000 and is one of Russia's oldest cities. It has an educated work force and several institutions of higher learning. Albany has William Kennedy; Tula has Leo Tolstoy.   The Alliance has worked primarily on health care, education, humanitarian aid, business development and agriculture. New undertakings are planned for the environment, civics and government. We hope the Alliance and Tula can develop civics education and a governmental structure to support environmental cleanup and that, at the same time, business development will grow. 

Tula has significant pollution from heavy chemical and metallurgical industries and the Chernobyl meltdown. Health problems have been linked to environmental problems. 

The Alliance's work in health care probably has been the most significant to date. With a U.S. Agency for International Development grant, plans were laid to create one of Russia's first managed health care organizations. With the leadership of Warren Paley, founder of the Community Health Plan, and Dr. Robert Chodos of Albany Medical Center, Tulan physicians came here for training in primary care as a way to move the focus of health care away from hospital-based treatment. People working with computers and in insurance came to learn about those aspects of managed care. 

With funding from the state of Tula and pharmaceutical companies, a clinic serving 70,000 people was opened. Albany's name has such credibility that the plan is called the Tula Albany Health Care Plan. 

In the Soviet Union, all doctors were trained in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Now, regional medical schools are starting, including one at Tula State University, which hopes to have a specialty in endocrinology. 

The Alliance -- assisted by the U.S. Commerce Department and Dr. James Figge -- brought two Tulan scientists here for three months. Among other things, Dr. Figge, a St. Peter's Hospital endocrinologist, taught them how to make recombinant DNA for use in evaluating health problems caused by environmental factors.

Many professors from Tolstoy State University and Tula State University have studied American educational systems at Capital Region institutions. Area professors and graduate students have taught at Tolstoy State University, while six Tulan college students have studied here. 

Under the Special American Business Intern Training Program, funded by the U.S. Commerce Department, 14 Tulan interns have worked here in such diverse fields as tourism, marketing, banking and radio/TV advertising. One intern, the counsel to the Tula state governor, studied local government and election law. Nine months later, Tula held its first free elections. 

In her briefing, Clinton noted that U.S. policy toward the 12 NIS in their struggle for democratic forms of government and market-oriented economies is "to use all the diplomatic and assistance tools available to ensure that this transformation is successful." 

Those involved in the Albany-Tula Alliance have been enormously rewarded knowing that they have made positive differences in the lives of people struggling for freedom and decent quality of life. It is also rewarding to realize we have developed, independently, programs that support U.S. policy.

Charlotte Buchanan is a member of the board of directors of the Albany-Tula Alliance.