The gift from Cummins South Inc. and the Onan Corp. ensures that Atlantans and their counterparts in Atlanta's sister city, Tbilisi, capital of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, will have the light and electricity they need to further partnership goals throughout the winter months. Topping the list of priorities is the establishment of a National Learning Resource Center for Tbilisi health care providers and creation of an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Paramedic Training Center.
"Tbilisi has electricity in the wintertime less than 50 percent of the time," said Patrick J. McGahan, president of Cummins South Inc., "and electricity is critical to the partnership's work there -- not only for the personnel working in the facilities, but also to keep the computer link between Tbilisi and Emory viable."
Early in 1992, the American International Health Alliance joined with the Emory School of Medicine, Grady Hospital and Morehouse School of Medicine to establish the Atlanta-Tbilisi Health Partnership, one of 21 such partnerships between U.S. institutions and health care organizations throughout the former Soviet Union. The Atlanta-based partnership has provided technical assistance to the Georgian Ministry of Health in areas such as national health finance reform, maternal and child health services, medical education and curriculum revision, nursing education and skills development.
"This generator will fill the vast need for a reliable source of electricity to operate our training programs and computer library center at the National Learning Resources Center in Tbilisi," said Ken Walker, Emory professor of medicine and a leader of the partnership project. "Our Georgian colleagues will now have access to the world's health care literature and information, which has not been available to them for the past 80 years."
-- Lorri Preston